Remaining principle on the mortgage was paid by Flock at closing ( ~60K), so my shares at Flock represent the equity in the home that I’d accumulated from appreciation and principal repayment over the last 17 yrs.I like their approach/strategy.

Key things to keep in mind with your numbers are:Rent should be > PITI (principal, interest, taxes, & insurance) + maintenance + vacancy + capex + property management fee. 

On a fixed mortgage, i could pay extra payments (or a one time lump sum payment) and apply it towards principal.

This allowed me to save over $1,200 per month on my payment and also increased my principal paydown by over $400 per payment compared to financing a new "high interest" loan! 

Depending on your loan structure I'm not even sure you could legally offer a personal guarantee outside of the loan for that money without committing mortgage fraud, as anything that could hinder the ability of the primary lender to recover their principal is supposed to be declared during their diligence period, and any material changes up to the point of taking the loan are supposed to be disclosed as well.

I came out of that employment so wounded at what I saw and how it affected the two principals I swore I would never be  a syndicator the downside risk was just to REAL. 

0 Chance.Cmon, pay for insurance or just don't own real estate.Trying to gain an extra 2-3% ROI and risk your entire principal is just stupid.Don't be cheap, get insurance.

And it required a lot of time and effort on my part whereas the syndication stuff is purely passive.But there's no way anybody can tell me that sfh rentals - if they are bought right at 70% ltv or better - are not going to return way more than anything else on the planet when you factor in how little money you actually have to put into them to begin with and then you let appreciation and principal paydown and rental profits pile up. 

Principal, interest, taxes and insurance. 280k with 20% down at 7% = about $1500 a month for PI.

i think it's because of the tremendous rise in home equity in the past 5 years.i used a HELOC to (1) help with a down payment on a short term loan, that I then paid back in full when I refinanced; and (2) to consolidate some higher interest debt, which I am now paying back by making extra payments against the principal since HELOCs are generally interest only for the first 5-10 years.