I pay mine on the 13th just to be on the safe side.

I believe it comes down to your integrity and how much of a desire you have to keep your community safe.

US housing market improves as Chinese investors look for alternative safe havens.My personal thoughts is that the net effect will be close to nil. 

If something were to happen to a tenant in the unit, ie fire, earthquake, etc, you could be held liable because you allowed someone to rent a space you know was not permitted and possibly not safe.

Could we just use RE lawyers and save on closing costs or should I play it safe and still go through RE agents?

My Naivety tells me to go slow and safe.

Slow and safe - pay it off or sell; 200-250k equity and 2500 a month cash flow(when paid off) sounds like a great start.

Email your education documents to [email protected] AND cc [email protected] just to be safe.

Be wary because many investors tend to forget to add in things like vacancy (safe 10% of monthly rent in most cases), repairs/maintenance (10% month), property management (10%), taxes, insurance, any utilities the owner pays, etc.  

you can go on crime reports.com and check to see if the neighborhood is safe.