The man got, well, not rich, but lets say comfortable, by teaching people how to prey on their neighbors.In my previous line of work (Health Care, which everyone knows is incredibly predatory;-), almost every time I heard someone make comments about the predatory practices of someone else, I eventually discovered the commentor was doing something that others considered predatory.  

Once your assets are discovered you can be sued personally whether you are liable or not.Trust agreements are not recorded.I have a friend that was sued via his LLC and personally over an accident on one of his properties.

I was thinking of a scenario where you went to go claim your recently purchased property and throw up a fence and discovered the neighbor has apparently long since claimed the location as their own parking numerous cars and other belongings there.

Later I discovered they moved in some family members and got a small dog, both prohibited in the lease.

Even for a low commission transaction I would hope a realtor that is a friend would put a little into this for you.Either way, I take the time to discover the market value, when they bought, what they paid, what they owe and why they are selling.The when, how much and what they owe I look up quickly online through the county tax assessor's site and recorded docs to see mortgages.Hopefully your realtor can provide you some comps to estimate FMV as that can be difficult for us to figure out.  

We have been very impressed with MI but the appraisals coming in under the asking price is a tough pill to swallow for us.I'm sure you have also realized that you and I are a bit late to the party in that Rent-to-Value ratios are in the 0.8-1.2 range now as opposed to higher in just the last few years.  2016 was a very good year for RE appreciation and newbies like us will pay a premium now.The main reason for my post is something no one has yet to mention that we have discovered. for W-2 investors like us who don't plan to leave their jobs soon, the depreciation is not an option as a tax write-off for those making over 100k/150k of W-2 income.  

They advertised it as a triplex, but after seeing the property in person I discovered it was a three story SFH with a variance (yet to be confirmed).

If you did and this was not contained in the report, then you have two possibilities:1) If it is something the building inspector should have caught (you will need your contractor / roofer) to provide you with a professional opinion, then it may be deemed an error/omission by your inspector (he has insurance for this);2) If it can be demonstrated that the seller intentionally camouflaged the defect such that the building inspector could not have been expected to discover the issue [remember the inspector is conducting a visual inspection and is not permitted to open walls, etc. ... though they are expected to enter the attic space and examine the underside of the roof], then you "may" have recourse to the seller.

It is insurance to pay out for any costs associated with trying to protect/fight/payoff claims against a lien that was not discovered.

This Is a policy I did not discover until well into the process.