However, since the direction becomes clearer to me now, I can dedicate more time on the investment route.

I would also encourage you to check out sjreia.org - this is the networking group dedicated to south jersey investors.

There should be dedicated wire pc's to send wires from and almost all trust accounts require 2 people be involved when sending wires and signing checks.Good practices and procedures are what keep people safe, even from internal fraud, usually.

I should have mentioned - on the newly rehabbed properties, virtually all of that 7% capex reserve just sits in a dedicated account without getting spent.Many people quoting their numbers or selling property lump this into their yearly "cash flow" or CoC return percentage.

There should be equity in the property to cover my second but if it goes to sale and the legal fees get tacked on, who knows if I will get any "leftovers" or if there will be any at all.No matter the case, the first thing to do is always the same: you need someone to contact the borrower to learn what happened, what's going on now and what they want to do.Let's say you reach out to them and they say "screw this, they can take the house I don't care" well then your options are going to be different than if they say "I'd rather sell then house than get a foreclosure on my record".Until you know more, you just can't determine what the best course of action is.As far as working out notes, there really are 3 options which all have pros and cons:- Do it yourself or in-house: you need to be good at negotiating, know the laws and want to dedicate a lot of time to it.

Bank Websites - Some banks have an entire department set up to sell REOs, and sections of their websites are dedicated to their listings.

@Josh Caldwell  your side of the coin comes from running a REIA were you make money trying to teach non licensed people to act as investor realtors.. and of course the simple answer is to just close then resell but I for one take the opposite view as you as seeing this cleaning up the industry not going in a bad direction.. this is a proud industry with a lot of folks that dedicate their lives to this career do their CE pay their E and O give proper disclosures etc.For those that just want to jump in with no training or licensure because they learned it at some REIA meeting and have 32 days of experience .. that just turning a bunch of uneducated ( in the ways of RE) unregulated ( and some have very limited character) lose on the general public.. and we all know the crooks out there...

"The toughest battles are the ones we have within ourselves" I love this quote and agree 100%.I've always admired the discipline, grit, dedication, and mental toughness displayed by my 2 marine step-brothers.I think my favorite part of your story was that your made the decision with intention to get more from life.

Dedication to the craft.

If I were you, unless you are ready to dedicate a considerable amount of time towards flipping homes and eventually making a career out of it, would do option number 2.