I am not sure how you plan to handle rent collections but if you think there may be times that a tenant will need to pay via some non online option then having a bank in the area of the property can be good.

You are going to pay top dollar for new construction, but it has several anomalies that will restrict your future value.

A PITA to be sure but this doesn’t address all the possibilities.What if your tenant pays by the month?

Assuming you've done the math and it is financially best to have them leave, lose the rent, and pay rehab expenses so you can charge a higher rent, just non-renew them.

Turns out, the appraiser said it would pay off.

How much do I pay?

Even if you have to pay a bit more now and have CF decreased, you will get the funds to continue deals and can reposition later. 

Sorry, but I would not pay for membership extras when there is so much already there without having to pay for it.

So my question is: if I wanted to save on the recording costs, keep the deed for my records, proactively pay taxes as they're billed (would coordinate with the company I buy the CFD from), then work with the borrower to get the deed recorded under their name once they've paid off the contract--am I putting myself at risk? 

Best to have a month to month lease or one with a start and end date if you want them to leave on a specific date, that lets you move to eviction if they don't pay.