During ski season the majority of people are here for the weekend and are limited to just the MMSA whereas during the summer everyone is on vacation (European travels too) with lots to do (golf, hiking, fishing, music festivals, Yosemite,etc).

Lake Toho is known for bass fishing.

Maybe it’s just gut feel, but for some reason It FEELS like these two scenarios will provide excellent opportunities moving forward, while fishing for notes to purchase at significant discounts to current principal enough to yield sufficient returns doesn’t seem as promising.  

Mason welcome to biggerpockets I also went to UW-WSuggestion for the next 10 years , if possible purchase four plex , duplex , triplex, last resort sfr for house hacking ( no immediate cash flow )Rinse and repeat until your personal lives change ( family, relationship, etc )Each state you purchase property :Develop a decent team to handle your investment properties while you enjoy your fishing/etc

So far he caught 3 fish in 40 years. 

the more I think on it...the more I would think paying a successful (hands-on) mentor $3K and $300/month, would be better investment...along the lines of learning to fish instead of buying fish...someone recently told me they spend about $5K/month of marketing for every wholesale deal they do and they average about $10-12K profit for each deal. not fix/flip, just wholesale....so I guess there's many ways to look at ROI for such things..

Treat this like fishing: What would you DO with a house if you 'caught' one?

Keep fishing. 

I may want the old loan to remain.Of course, if this is an estate sale requiring court confirmation, you've got a different kettle of fish to deal with.

That is a HUGE difference.There are services out here that will sell you a lead.Once his site is ranking #1,  he stops paying me (if he actually WAS paying me) yet the leads still come in.See it this way dude..If  I charge you 10 dollars teaching how to fish....... and 3 years from now you are still catching fish.