And convenient for me as a lender because if the borrower defaults, I can put insurance in the lender's entity name with one phone call or email.They occasionally have growing pains, but so far, they have solved any problems once I bring it to their attention.

I occasionally get calls and emails from them almost every month about properties they made loans on and are about to foreclosed on.

No job and just about every dime I make comes from something to do with a house or building other than an occasional car or horse deal I do, LOL!

It has held value better than almost any area of the country, due primarily to federal govt bloat.

The only drawbacks I've found is that occasionally it takes some work to figure out who the listing agent is, most of them do not offer to give out the codes, and a few of them are difficult to get a hold of on the phone.

I work with them occasionally on a limited basis.If the tenant is just late but they are a good tenant in all other respects that is different from a tenant that is not paying and has other things going on with them as well.In that case you inherited an improperly screened tenant and must make them cone into compliance or leave.When buying properties like this do not count on the rental income right away as you have to go through a purging process with the bad tenants.

It's nice to have a heads up on parties, employment, and occasional pictures of the apartment.

Losing an occasional deal is just a cost of doing business and I don’t expect to be paid for every phone call (Yes, I’m exaggerating).This topic was also covered at length in this thread: http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/22/topics/65735-how-to-verify-private-and-hard-money-lendersThere are many problems you can protect yourself from.

Or, for the last 20 years they're occasionally done projects on their own house?

I have one left that is with wells and they're trying to get me to take an inferior deal with bloated fees and a higher rate.