and any other needs I need to prep for when going this route.Hard money lenders will look at your personal credit, prior experience, and the subject property.

Interest rate and insurance cost in Houston will make house hack harder now but it is not entirely impossible. for particular Indepdent Height, arces homes, and highland height is a great area that is growing in my opinion. 77021 near medical center has some really nice streetLook for home that has garage apartment, duplex or big land to put up additional structure later on. look for area with low tax rate and no HOA. plenty of them around

Adjust the lease term prior to closing, period.

Way too much liability and risk out there.You can't purchase a residential property in a new LLC in NJ unless you have two years of tax returns on the entity or a relationship with a local bank who will allow it.

I've most often seen it with sellers who aren't interested in doing a 1031 and they save some on taxes, earn interest, have a swtream of payments, but no obligation to operations/maintenance. 10 years or less is likely.

If the violations require a permit you will have to get that permit & get the work done prior to the court releasing this case.  

I like Nevada because it's close to CA, low property taxes, landlord friendly and has strong tech and manufacturing job growth. 

I understand that I will pay 10% in penalty as well as 24% of state taxes on it as well, leaving me with $50-55K.

You can always complete a line of credit or cash out refinance and repurpose that equity while keeping the asset (all tax free money). 

The owner doesn't need to show alot of additional income for tax purposes but wants to sell the house.