The home is in a rural setting and is heated primarily with a wood stove in the basement and electric baseboard.

If you do not have other collateral, then you might set up a "Guidance Line" with the hard money lender. 

Partnering will set you up for long term success.

Closing is set for early December, but lender sees no reason we can’t close before Thanksgiving since we were all set with paperwork and every request for further documentation we jumped on within 24 hours.

Several years ago, I had tenants who took on a roommate without telling me and they set up a bedroom in the basement next to the boiler.

The key is just management and setting up financial structures that will make you feel a bit more comfortable. 

Moreover, set realistic expectations within the scope of their responsibilities.

I have some money set aside and have been monitoring the 20-40 unit apartment space but it seems that the new buzz word is syndication. 

Screening is very fast and complete - I can elect to accept CC and set the convenience fee (I do charge a tad above costs), and I find its pretty easy to reconcile a tenants payment via "serial number" or transaction ID reported to the bank with both Rentec accounting AND quickbooks - albeit Quickbooks is still manual for me (you can export from Rentec to Quickbooks via CSV... havent got that far along yet.We literally just completed several rehabs (meaning LOTS of expense), so seeing rents come in quickly and accurately is a relief for a change!

My goal is to buy the property via lease option purchase and then resell it with a lease option purchase and cashflow while waiting for the new buyer to qualify for a loan.My concern is that the monthly payment could eventually exceed my cashflow.My original thought was that I set a fixed monthly rent amount in my lease purchase agreement with the seller, and anything above that is his responsibility.But my concern with that is what if he doesn't continue to pay the mortgage?