I would guess that as you move more toward the hard-money side (less flexible, more formal) of private lending, having a lender's title policy in place becomes even more of a requirement. 

The buyer agent and the seller agent will talk details over the phone, and formalize the details in writing on the contract.

@Griffin Sisk I learned the hard way investing with friends that to cover your bases be sure to make it official and have a formal partnership agreement with at least one or two well thought out exit strategies in the event something goes wrong or someone needs to exit the investment.

Laws in the Bay Area are very protective of tenants and I'm not sure if suggesting he move without going through the formal eviction process would be considered coercing the tenant, or something along those lines.

The case reached the highest court in Massachusetts (Called the Supreme Judicial Court -- aka SJC) The investor purchased vacant 4+ unit apartment building and planned on a rehab.The investor, MacLaurin argued he didn't need sprinklers because the rehab was minor and that the installation of sprinklers would be much more costly than putting them in at the time of construction.

The investment (in the form of formal Membership in the LLC that will own the land parcels) is as low as $10,000 chunks and they will start out with an immediate 600% TDR credit equity, which won't take forever to harvest.

I'm looking to optimize my tax situation, as many states offer tax breaks for "homestead" residences.However, I have yet to see a formal definition of what a homestead actually is.To qualify as a homestead, do you need to live in the property for a certain number of days, or some other requirement?

You can call the IRS to get the number after about two weeks, but you need the formal letter before you can open a bank account.7.

Never been an problem--just a formality (I just note I do REI on my own time, with my own resources, and it is unrelated to my job duties).

They recently decided that 65 is too young to get a PSA test for males, despite studies from the American Cancer Institute showing quite the opposite.