I am ready to put down 20% and I have sufficient income to pay the mortgage and other expenses for the investment property. 

@Cameron Berens I think some are worth their weight in diamonds, but the vast majority are useless pieces of skin. 

I would recommend flipping over buy-n-hold based on my limited experience and the vast experience of the owner of the company I work for (he currently owns 34 houses and now flips 10 per year). 

As no Buyer would list the property, and as many MLS's require more than equitable interest to be sufficient for an MLS listing, the danger of a "Net Listing" is ONLY if the Listing agent enters into an agency agreement in the first place. 

With sufficient ID and info, you can obtain background checks without SS#.  

The ideas and concepts that that entails are vast and many.  

I'm so grateful to all for the vast amount of knowledge shared in these forums!

If I agree to this, can I put a lein directly on the property and would this and a contract sufficiently protect my position in the property?

Also you would need to have sufficient cash for this approach.

My team experts all seem to agree that holding title personally with sufficient insurance is low risk.