So I got it in my head to get a realtor and make offers.

They got in over their head with ARMs or other tricky loans and can no longer afford the house.

We own ours outright, so we only pay property taxes, insurance and maintenance, which roughly halves our cost of having a roof over our head.

What good would it do her to lose the sale by giving your agent a heads up so that you could have an accepted purchase offer?

You are already heading toward multifamily(MF) properties, you just need to move toward the larger units.

You are by far headed in the right direction to set you future up!!!

Shaking my head....

I also invest in Tucson and found inventory tightened significantly from 2011 heading into 2012.

Unless there is some kind of exception to the Colorado SAFE Act (like you can use a "hired" MLO) your chances of finding a lender for an OO purchase are slim.Off the top of my head Alternatives (for you and your attorney to discuss): buy the property in an LLC or other "non-person", have the lender lend to the LLC, and have LLC membership/ownership as you and your wife, with an additional member being the lender upon your demise (or other events (including insolvency, etc.))

This should be a warning sign that your tenant is headed for financial trouble and you don't need to get dragged into it.You didn't mention how neat your tenant is.