I did my due diligence to make sure there were no liens and based on my observations months after the property became vacant, I felt the risk of redemption was low.After the auction, the estate of the deceased borrower opened probate.

As you will notice it confirms some of the observations from @Jaron Walling.

The appreciation you observed is the result of CA influx.

Most of the long-term wealth I’ve observed has come from buy-and-hold investors, especially those using DSCR loans to steadily build rental portfolios.

My observation is the best content is consistently put out by various paid memberships, and the worst most spammy ai stuff is by free or low vote accounts. 

I'd suggest going to the courthouse steps and just observing for a month or two.

Good observation.

This is merely what I've observed from the content I 've seen online. 

The two pitfalls I observe:1.

From my observation, it is harder to get a substantial down payment and a higher than market interest rate at the same time.