The concept is very simple: if you can put your money into an asset that will grow at 6-8%, and you can get a credit line against that asset at Prime, then anything you do with that credit line is adding value on top of the original asset.

Some examples of potential future drivers will be: something similar to what Bush did when he signed the American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003, China easing up on Capital Controls (this would be a great sign, but with trade war and China's issues with their own economy I seriously doubt this), IPOs over last 2 years creating much needed wealth for employees (takes 12-24 months for them to be able to exercise stock options), a dot com like bubble in the stock market (I think this is most likely scenario given stock buybacks and QE and I won't be surprised to see stocks doing something absolutely unbelievable over the next 1-5 years similar to 97-end of dot com bubble), or heavy doses of QE and easier access to credit for most people.Working in the Bay Area, we saw first hand how many buyers were foreign and how many paid for houses in cash without even looking at the homes in quite a few cases. 

Will a simple promissory note be enough to record a lien on the asset?

Seems simple.

It can be as simple as driving by and looking at the yard or a comprehensive assessment of everything inside the unit.

It really all boils down to good estimating and simple math.

Additionally, when I have several projects going, I have to do a lot more accounting for floating checks/expenses than I would need to if I scheduled each electronically.Has anyone found a good and simple method for transferring money electronically that a contractor could immediately see the value? 

It's simple, but hard work.Good luck!

I’m cautious around what I don’t know, and even though my dad has always steered me into investing and is really good at “educating” me, he makes real estate sound overly simple, and I’ve watched him struggle with different flipping and tenant issues that has just added to my fear.I found bigger pockets 3 months ago, and have learned more in 3 months that I have in the previous 20 years about real estate investing!

Benefit Base is also initially $300,000 but this number can only go up, and in this example, it gets 7% annual rollups for the first 10 years (typically simple interest), so it goes up by $21,000/year.