If your seller was paying the mortgage directly to the bank, they should have some sort of paper trail to prove that.

This would include getting lists of names from the city, yellow paper, envelopes, ect. how many people should you start mailing to for your first batch.

I use a small bank, pay a tad more in rate (compared to Wells quote).

They do all underwriting in house and then sell to Wells Fargo.

She agreed to not wanting the stuff verbally but it would be better to have it on paper.

If you have a pad of paper, try to jot down notes while they're talking.If they need to know more about what you're doing, just speak the truth, disclose what you need to disclose (so as not to be found shady later).Starting out, I had the same question.

I try to avoid flood insurance with other types of non secured loans or someone holding paper vs a conventional type mortgageWe are having a REIA meetup in Atlantic City on August 10th https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/329286-atlantic-city-nj-real-estate-networking-meetupWouldn't it be cheaper and easier to house hack into something?

I have a paper screening and then only run credit background on candidates that meet a basic criteria rejecting one before moving on.

@Alexander Zurn In my area, there is a paper mill that spreads odor's throughout parts of the county when the wind blows.  

Why on Earth would you want to throw all those advantages away to chase short term paper cash faux in a high CAP rate market that you are not familiar with, which is thousands of miles away, and where you would need to depend on the kindness of strangers to manage the properties with your best interests at heart and make or break your investment?!?