The loan itself is generally pretty inexpensive, and that 4% interest is going back to the plan, but the real cost is your personal tax rate.Using hard money to get started in real estate is generally less expensive that taking a 401k participant loan.  

Thanks for participating.   

If you are not first, you should get a little higher interest.Since you are lending a small amount and are inexperienced, if you are not in first position you should not even consider participating.

He's moving forward whether I'm interested in participating for a small share or not..

Golf participation is down quite a bit from the peak years and some of the courses around me (Illinois) are not doing as well as they were.I think there's a better and higher use for most golf courses by converting them to development to be honest.......But your example suggests thats not always true.

Definitely, listen to the podcasts and participate on the site.

Great responses and comments from Knowledgeable participants.

Thanks to any that respond and l look forward to participating and hopefully one day contributing to the site.

But, the basic valuation techniques will hold true anywhere that real estate is participating in a free market.If the OP thinks that NYC has it's own set of valuation rules, I'll need to be convinced...

The "just market value" of their land is then listed at $250K (the county defines JMV as "The price at which a property, if offered for sale in the open market, with a reasonable time for the seller to find a purchaser, would transfer for cash or its equivalent, under prevailing market conditions between parties who have knowledge of the uses to which the property may be put, both seeking to maximize their gains and neither being in a position to take advantage of the exigencies of the other.")I am very interested in learning by participating in this deal but I don't know whether i am getting screwed through 1) him assessing my basis too low by valuing it at 212 instead of 250k and 2) the terms of the overall deal.I am leaning towards doing the JV since there are other places where I can learn about rehabbing and renting, or flipping, but this property offers a great opportunity to participate in a development with a high quality experienced guy who is very well connected.