One house I bought in Virginia at auction had an occupant, with a dead car, that didn't leave by the agreed upon date and I called the police.

I've spent quite a bit of time reading the standard Trust Deeds that come with conventional mortgages, and none of them explicitly prohibit transferring title to the collateral, they almost always speak to the beneficial interest or rights of occupancy.

If you live on a property that is Smoke free by order of the owner and inforced by a written lease from the non owner occupents then I think the next time you smell smoke you should take the only prudent course of action and get out of the house say to the front porch ( where your tenant might be sitting) then you might take the prudent action of calling the Fire Department of course you should loudly warn your tenant that there appears to be a fire due to the smell of smoke on your non smoking property and that you are calling the fire department so they can check it out.

Occupancy rates, P&L statement, etc?

Sometimes when I look them up on the tax assessor website I get the name of an owner occupant, and then I'll google their name and find an obituary.. 

They choose instead to go to the sore to return and buy something then deal with some outsourced nightmare phone company being used for customer service returns.Most of my clients do not buy big box but centers with multiple tenants for better break even occupancy.

As a person who was an owner occupant in the neighborhood, living there was a good experience. 

Since I am out of state, I am mainly looking for the quality of the tenants and a good occupancy rate area.

Or get started by owner occupying, improving and selling on, and use those funds to begin your BTL purchase.Lastly, buy as an owner occupant and rent other rooms out to increase your income; save that up for your future deposit.  

The formula is (Gross Revenue x Occupancy Rate) - ALL expenses = NOI.