From an investor's perspective, I feel like there could be some instances where an earthquake policy could still make sense on a rental property--even if one had minimal equity.Let's say you have a rental house in SLC that you owe 400k on (and the house is only worth 415k, so you have minimal equity).

@Christopher Murphy, @Julian Colvard nailed it on the head with the appraisal gap clause.

I always have bloated prices in my head for everything. 

Someone else who gets involved in subleasing could probably answer better on that but many cases I have seen of it involve someone doing it behind the landlords back, and seller financing will often be the result of the seller getting the buyer to pay significantly more than a property is worth (especially in this hot of a sellers market, every instance I have seen of a seller soliciting seller financing was with a property that was $100k overpriced), unless you find a property owner who just takes kindly to you and doesn't mind giving you a start with it I would definitely recommend getting a third party BPO or Appraisal before you sign any agreement with a seller on seller financing. 

I gotta read this multiple times to wrap my head around the concept!  

I just wanted a few general questions to try and guide the conversation and to try and get a peek inside their head to understand how they think about real estate.

I have a lot of head knowledge but I’m drawing blanks as to what I should do.

By doing this (and knowing the line item costs), you can walk into a home and back out 15 minutes later with a number in your head.

(aka taken to the cleaners).Just a heads up from my perspective before you (go for the gold).Good Luck!

I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall!