My deals are essentially like hybrid debt/equity placements.

There is a minimum bid announced before the auction here, so that eliminates the real need for any sort of bidding war OR a bank rep.

Sure you have paid down the note some but the higher interest rate on refi could make your debt service payments higher than before.It's easy to get into an property but sometimes much harder to get out of one.You have to think and plan for worse case scenario when structuring these deals.Many of these owner finance deals are going under the radar.I have already had some bankers tell me in the future they will call these as interest rates rise because of the DOS clause.So in my opinion it is an excellent time to load up on owner finance as long as the down payment and terms are right.

If variable I would contact your mortgage company to get a reduced interest rate and a fixed loan.There are programs to reduce the rate even if you are not behind yet on the mortgage.You need to reduce the debt service so it doesn't kill your income.How much would you need to come up with to sell this property??

(btw, my 2007 Corolla got almost 14 grand at 3.5%, used car valuations are VERY high right now).Again, I want to get as much debt as I can at these interest rates.

Does the current occupant need to come up with the funds to pay off all of the existing debt or do they simply need to come up with $60k to redeem?

(this is usually NOT the best course of action)All the attorney will do is hire a collection company that has more bark than bite and rarely collects any money.The other option is to use a judgement recovery company.They usually pay the court costs and filing fees and then split 50/50 of whatever they recover.Sometimes they will buy the judgement outright for real cheap.In this case you get your cash right away and move on.Judgements depending on the smarts of the tenant can take 3 months to years to collect.Some tenants are judgement proof.This can happen when:1.The funds are retirement funds in a bank or social security where money can't be taken.2.The tenant works a job where their income is at a level where they cannot be garnished by Federal Law.Even when you can garnish you can only take 25% each time.If their are other judgements already garnishing then the 25% gets split up among the garnishments.85% of judgements never collect a dime because of the work involved.Even if the judgement company you employ chases the tenants for money the tenant may pay or they might just file BK if they have other debts.A chapter 7 costs thousands so it would depend on their other total debts and how much your judgement is for.This is why it is important to carefully screen tenants.They need to have good credit,a good job with long work history,etc. or something where you know you can collect if they default.If you have multiple tenants staying in one place and they all make minimum wage it will be hard to collect on them later versus one person showing great income.Hope it helps.

Since REO's have potential unknown liability issues, is it more likely a "you get what you pay for" situation.A home may have a price of $250k, but have an estimated value of $300k (based on size, age, neigborhood, etc), but that means the bank estimates there is $50k worth of liability (whether that is unknown debt or repairs).

I am eager to start a new career in real estate investing, but I only have about $15k to play with and can't afford any big mistakes (I have two small children and don't want to get into debt trying to make money!)

That's as long as the bank includes the net cash flow all as income, and doesn't split it up between income and debt components.Yes, that's a great situation you have there.