Make sure you check with the city/county and regulatory agencies before you take the old one out.Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.Good luck!

It's much easier than dealing with a bank since everything is online and they're doing non-owner occupied loans, which means way less regulatory compliance issues.

You need to examine the regulatory framework for the conversion. 

They said due to regulatory concerns they didn't want the account because I was considered competition and thus it would be a conflict of interest .I never thought I'd say this but I just want a bank to take my money. 

You can look at the Colorado Division of regulatory affairs to see how long they have had their license. 

SEC is one regulatory body, but states have their own securities laws as well.

Many COAs don't have one, don't know what one is or how to get one, and therefore have no idea how much money they need to have on-hand to make repairs.I am not familiar with the regulatory scheme for COA management in Mass.  

I have been at another forum writing about "creative financing" at the Creative Financing Forum.Here is the intro:It is the spring and I thought I would give a primer on "creative financing" for the BP community.I will break it up into Beginner and Advanced.I will talk about well known and not so well known strategies.Beginner strategies includes bank financing, hard money and private lender financing, as well as installment sales, land contracts, lease options to buy-control, sub2, land trusts, option to purchase flipping, sale and purchase contract flipping, wrap around mortgage-AITD purchases, self-directed IRAs, Joint Venture Partnerships w LLCs, and others.Advanced strategies include JVs with Sellers, pooling private funds, syndications and more.Lastly some legal issues regarding Dodd Frank, CFPB regulation, illegal flipping, and other issues.I will visit this post page every day for as long as it takes to go over these creative financing strategy issues.Brian link = https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/50/topics/438...RE Lease Options, I'll post here: Buying on Lease w Option, Selling on Lease w OptionLease Option Assignments (aka Wholesaling Lease Options or Cooperative Lease Options), Sandwich Lease Options, Splitting Equity Lease Purchase, Delayed Sale and Purchase Agreements,Using ROFRs or Right of First Refusals with Leases, Master Lease Options on Small Apartment Buildings, and more.Also I will talk about - regulatory and legal issues such as the CFPB and Dodd Frank, - liability of acting without a real estate sales license, - problems with asking the tenant to do maintenance and repairs, - and more.I will post to this thread every day until these subjects are covered.

For investors or commercial transactions, the regulatory attitude is, you should know better and understand what you're getting into.Unless someone bails you out with a check, (unlikely) the best or only way for you to get your money back and have any hope of realizing any of that equity is to sell it!

And like Scott mentioned above, between the CFPB (and other regulatory and compliance issues) or a borrower, there are a litany of things that could spark a suit.Even in the case you mentioned where you're lending money as a 1st mortgage to someone, there are a variety of risks.