I keep a paper-free office because I don't have the luxury of a file cabinet ( the Twins would have taken it apart ).  

Liens have to be filed and are usually pubic record.

State laws vary, but at the very least, you can always file a small claims case against the contractor.  

The city files a legal case to transfer the property from the owner to a non-profit, which auctions the property.  

The paper just notifying us but nothing to file) and we were told to expect a 1099-c this year.  

if I could raise another 30k I would buy all cash, I don't want to refi again since I just did a couple of months ago and that would just add more to my principal balance.  

Tell Lars that Chris Mason sent you.http://larsghanssoncpa.com/ When his office and mine get conspiratorial with the goal of boosing purchasing power of a self employed person a tax filing or two out because someone's purchasing power is artificially constrained by stupid mortgage guidelines, amazing things happen.

Option 1: Purchase the most house for my money in order to have the most possible equity when the market goes back up and either flip or rent the place using the profit or equity in order to get into a new place (I am somewhat versed in the regulations around using rental income toward purchasing another property and my understanding is that I could count half of the monthly rental price toward my income while the principal of the property still counts toward my debt services ratio) please correct me if I am wrong.

You can put each property into its own LLC without the additional expense of filing with the state each time.  

It is a great news for me that I am able to file home office deduction and do not need to pay self-employment tax.