@Jeremiah Fender  I don't expect our interest to align or be on the same page your in AG and I am a developer  LOL... and in your imediate area the state does allow larger projects. but over in the Willamette valley its tough.And then you have what happened in Washington county... the County and metro works 6 years on the new UGB and rural reserves... it gets appealed and the appeal is up held throwing 6 years of work by numerous agencies out the window.. and in a still to be unbelievable series of events the country Metro state and Governor in 2 weeks formulate and implement ( the Grand Bargain) and through out all of the planning that was done for 6 years redraw all the lines ..

All points listed herein detail numerous attempt by the XXXX Property Maintenance Division to circumvent the law of the land.

I have, however, successfully defended numerous clients and protected their assets in entities--even when the mortgage was in their name.

Joe, I'm not sure the 1031 exchange section of the blog is the right spot for these questions (I could be wrong).Also I don't have any direct answers to your questions as I am in the middle of figuring the same thing out myself.However, Clint Coons had a great presentation at the Summit regarding Asset protection in which he covered numerous ways to set up your entities as well as the benefits/drawbacks of each.I would recommend checking out his blog for some direction.

what if I decide to lien the property due to the gambling problem (or some other problem of that nature) ?

It's a pure gamble at this point and, I'm not much for gambling and if I were, I think I have better odds in Vegas.

I have heard numerous instances where politicians and economists have stated that it is a consumer economy and consumers need to go spend.

Matt, Not knowing much on the CA area, I will speak in generalities.Know the value, on something like this with a 5/1 ARM you are gambling plain and simple, your rolling the dice on your bet that in 5 years time you will be sitting in XYZ position, the financial industry will be XYZ, housing industry, local market, YOUR income, so on and so fourth.

If you have not done some of these initial steps I encourage you to search and educate yourself of the numerous BP posts and blogs on turnkey operations before you spend another dime.

No sorry @Eric Gamble.