Do background checks, call their references, current and previous employers, search social media sites and see what you can find about them.  

If you live in one unit and the other unit goes vacant, well then you're only making 1 mortgage payment, and once it's re-rented you're back to break even status.

The tenant is paying next to nothing in rent and missed this month's payment and the owner doesn't want to deal with the situation.Since this tenant went into month-to-month status on that original lease many years ago, does that mean that the new owner (whomever I assign the contract to) can evict the tenant with a thirty-day notice?

Search on Social Networking Sites: There are a ton of social sites where you can find hard money lenders online.

If they need to post immediately they can "verify" their profile with social media.

If it's an individual, I once tracked someone down via social media.... facebook in that case... and just messaged them and it worked out quite well to open up some communication with a divorce situation that was in bankruptcy in that particular case.Just some thoughts..... hope that helps!  

First I would say run your business as a business not a social program.

Public pension plans, the biggest of which is Social Security, haven't been managed as well as many would like, but are not really broken.

Initially partnering, then eventually converting a few key people to employee status with significant per-project bonuses to align our incentives while retaining the knowledge of how we do things.8) Rinse and repeat in other cities, based on how quickly the business can expand, vs. the amount of risk that I want to take on.

Please provide a few more details on the estate and ownership status.