re: Bond for deed - bad idea?

Yea the sewer guy died of a heart attack in the middle of WalMart and the inspector just died of old age.

That sewer guy had put in two sewers for me one time and he crossed the discharge pipe over a pipeline even though I told him we couldn't and the systems had to be sprinkler systems. Thankfully I knew the boss of the pipeline because I used to date his step-daughter or else it could have costs us a lot of money. He told me had the sewer guy scratched the pipeline or even gotten within 12" of it, we would have to pay for them to shut the pipeline down for a few hours to be inspected. This was a supply line to a Boise papermill so you can imagine what that lost production would have costs.

We had to have the pipeline guys stay out there while we dug it up to test the depth and then compacted the dirt back to make sure it was all done properly.

I never used that sewer guy again and it shows what a moron he was but he and his brother were police jurors for years and he had Parish connections.

Did you find an LOC to begin or did you leverage your way in a property at a time? I'm always curious how guys start. I worked with a loan officer who had about two dozen properties around the BR area. He worked strictly so he had a way to make money on his own payoffs. He asked them all for the right of first refusal when they went to get financed.

Was a very, very wealthy guy. He told me stumbled into it with a house he had before he got married, and he just kept going, one at a time...

A little of both. Started off a property at a time and then made good friends with the president of a local bank and he let me run wild pretty much. I am able to call him and tell him what I need and he makes sure I have it.

I started as a Realtor, then started flipping, then got a contractor's license and started building specs. It all has snowballed over time. I never venture out to finance something but it happens from time to time if I have the right buyer and it just depends on the circumstances. I have a few second mortgages too on specs that I have sold and the people couldn't get 100% financed. I used to always operate under the "a fast nickel is better than a slow dime" principal but the older I get, the more that changes as I want to set myself up for later in life. I prefer BFD over renting for obvious reasons. Never been big into owning rentals because of the headaches. For example, I leased out my gas station to someone and they burned it down.

There's something to be said for first lien position but many people who have mortgages against property they're using as an investment have wording that won't allow other mortgage-related instruments to be filed. It precludes a private mortgage for the mortgagors to be in a primary lien position.

But they both have uses. Stout carries some private seconds. I know a guy who created a private non profit and pumped some startup cash into it. It handed out "down payment assistance." Helped his borrowers get amazing deals and low rates and was a massive tax write off.