The first pillar is avoiding unnecessary and risky activities (don't drink and drive, insurance generally won’t cover your poor decisions) and take good care of your investments - these simple steps will help you prevent lawsuits before they even occur.

I had this recently where we thought it was a "paper street," but researched with the city and found out that the city didn't own it, old owners who sold land to developers actually maintained ownership of that whole strip between 2 rows of homes, but most homes there just fenced it as part of their own backyard. 

@Subbie Kaur: Thanks for your input and my strategy is to buy low and sell High, with that said I am in the beginning stages of investing and have a limited knowledge of the inner workings of Taxation Corporation structure so on and so on and I'm sure there will be some bumps along the way but to make a long story short my strategy is simple to make money honestly and legally regardless the end of the day make money

Don’t you want a paper trail?

If approved, new person is added to the lease with a simple hand-written note and everyone signs agreeing to it.In six months he will want to move out.

Once they pass your "on paper" application, the last step is go visit the place your applicant lives NOW. 

Originally posted by @Chris Seveney:@An LamI always send someone and what I tell them is the truth, I typically send people by when we buy distressed mortgages and have them say we are a lender inspecting the propertymy Daddy taught me that real estate was belly to belly.. of course this was pre internet pre fax and we were still using carbon paper which I am sure half of BP does not know what that is.but if the folks are there that's a win.. 

If they fill in the paper on site, there's a question that asks the following with a mortgage VOE ( Verification of Employment ).

A lease is just a piece of paper after all.

Honestly, tracking costs in excel (or even on paper, if your accountant will accept it) is easier than it sounds.