And its far better to lose 20 to 50k then to buy a project that wont work for any number of reasons but you wont know it does not work until yo spend the money. 

The only issue is, if the neighbor knows that your mom likes have a fence between the yards, the neighbor could say, "Move it or lose it."

Losing revenue is serious when a mortgage is at play.  

Meaning you will probably end up losing the house due to needing to sell or being foreclosed on.

@Michael Babin with the limited numbers you have given you will only lose $104 per month. how I calculated it. 50% expense= $2025 per month  left over for PI. [email protected]% = $2129.

As someone said - first thing to do is get her affairs in order if you haven't already and have DPOA's set up for finance and health if 2 people will be involved or just one for all affairs - definitely consult an attorney and get everything in writing - if your family goes and invests her money and you lose it or there are not checks/balances and someone is essentially embezzling money you're asking for trouble and can cause her all sorts of issues.  

When things go wrong, in the case of an owner-occupant losing employment or having some other financially distressful event, how will this be handled?

The lender typically will not re-trade a loan with a capital markets broker as they can stand to lose a ton of business versus a buyer calling for a one off loan.

I want to know if I will lose the 3.5% down payment if these 12 SFR are in my name when I go to get the loan.

Am I definitely going to lose rent value going from cramped 3 to nice 2?