I only consider licensed contractors but have found that most reasonably-priced contractors are not bonded or insured. 

having cut my teeth with a HML in Oakland Ca in the mid 80s  I have watched this transformation of how the industry is marketed.

Put down over 40% and cashed bonds to get the home up graded How did you add value to the deal?

The closes I could come to answering this question was "30 Year US Treasure Bonds".1) Low risk2) Decent return (Currently)3) Nobody involved besides me and the best economy in the world (The US).4) And no work other than monitoring the economic climate sporadically.Now, the bigger question is "How to get to $10m in liquidity?"

Next year, Mike, it's going to be a trove of found Nazi art or bearer bonds.

Hopefully, this hasn't been asked, as I skimmed very quick to try to play catch up.If the only equity you had was in a property, and it is leveraged to the teeth.

On average the payout is 4% or so over the life of the policy.  4% sounds pretty good when compared to bonds, and it is basically a guaranteed dividend, so long as the company backing it remains solvent. 

Many companies will do notes or bonds that are unsecured debt against company as they don’t want to pin it to every asset which is not uncommon - but when they take on additional debt that is secured and/or start to incur massive losses that’s when it gets hairy.

Matt,You can reinvest into any "Income producing" asset/investment - Stocks, Bonds, Real estate etc.

Bought a couple, but they were scarce as hen's teeth!