I would look at supply and demand, economic stability and potential and regulatory influences that can effect your business.

@Bill GulleyWhat regulatory agency has jurisdiction for registering HML that you refer to? 

After building custom homes for 15 years in Maryland I can tell you first hand that the combination of taxes, impact fee's, energy codes, septic regulations and regulatory oversight has driven the cost of new construction through the roof (no pun intended).  

That becomes a private lending relationship, you didn't solicit borrowers.No regulator is going to try to drill down so far as to prove your offer to enter a partnership or business relationship was a solicitation to make loans, so much.Now, it will be much better to keep your private status by doing loans with a select few that you have done past deals with.

The challenge for me at the moment is regulatory compliance.

This market, from a regulatory standpoint, is stable for now.The 'wear and tear' question comes up a lot when I tell people what I am doing.  

As a commercial lender for a community bank, I have a bit more flexibility than a commercial lender from a big box bank - not regulatory flexibility, but just more "out of the box" approach.  

A couple thoughts came to mind while reading your post.Firstly, there are no regulatory restrictions on managing property within your self-directed IRA or 401k.

From a regulatory aspect you have risks of criminal activities and large fines and jail is real.

Unfortunately, most of what I can offer is only sweat equity as I am not very skilled in any obviously beneficial way for real estate investing.I currently work full time for a chemical company in Irving, TX as a regulatory affairs specialist for those of you interested in what I do for a living currently.