I am 26 years of age, living with my parents in California's Central Valley.

I'm well aware of how careful one must be when renting to friends, or renting at all, and believe me, I have been planning with experienced adults about legal safeguards and the best way to handle the situation so there is zero grey area.Got a family friend who is a skilled realtor, just helped us get the house we're in now (I'm living with my parents while I'm saving money), and they sold our old house as well.

You meet these types, and they HATE tenants, they HATE the job, they're convinced that there's only one way to do it, Mommy and Daddy bought the duplex in 1951 and passed it on in the mid-eighties and they wish their parents had given them a stock portfolio instead.

While I'm waiting for my pre-approval, I'm starting to look up fourplexes and simulating numbers on Excel, seeing which are a good deal and which are not from the MLS.Problem is that as a Canadian citizen but non-resident, I need to have a minimum of 35% downpayment from all banks and on top of it, a 25% withholding tax.The downpayment I can handle if the returns are good, but the 25% withholding tax is taking all profits out.

@Leslie Fisher Not always correct, it depends what position the lien that is foreclosing is in, and if they have any superiority, if a first lien forecloses, all junior liens are foreclosed out, there are a few kinds of superior liens, like property taxes, and municipal charges,  water bills, snow removals or noxious weed cuttings. as well as cretin other tax liens, like federal or state tax liens for things like unpaid sales tax, withholding, and sometimes delinquent income tax, there are often remedies to get these removed after the fact, but there is no guarantee the taxing authority will release it. 

My parent always used no more than 2 people (note, people not kids) per room occupancy. 

He has important documents such as her birth certificate, her husbands birth certificate, his death certificate and other documents.I wanted to know if this lawyer is legally bound to withhold these documents for her even tho he did not do much to get the bank to see that she is the rightful owner of the house.

I want to dive deep into this and apply myself to be able to be financially independent buy my family our dream house and retire my parents. 

I lost them to things like better paying out of town jobs, moving to wifes hometown to take care of parents, jail, even opening their own business and getting massively busy. 

A 'program' will essentially do what I described (take payments from you, but withhold paying on the cc s until they can offer a settlement) but charge you a lot to do it.