I would recommend reading outstanding CPA @Brandon Hall 's recent blog post on partnerships and entities: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/flexible-...

@Jeff Kehl I've been seeing this a lot in deed records as well -- a lot of the houses will have outstanding loans far exceeding the purchase price.

The ones no one wants, for a reason, will Supposedly yield 10-18%....but there is reason experienced people won't touch those properties.Plus, the certificates give you no ownership interests, and to collect on them if the owner doesn't pay, requires paying off all the other outstanding certificates, sending it to auction, and hoping someone bids enough to cover all your costs.

It is my understanding that the loan needs to be repaid within 60 days or the outstanding balance will be subject to a 10% penalty & taxed as ordinary income.

Any realtor or lender can pull a title report on that property in like 2 seconds.Any competent lender can then guestemate the interest rate based on date of mortgage, use what you know about when he likely stopped paying his mortgage, and back into the current outstanding debt on the property.

Lebanon, Hampton, Quaker Valley, Fox Chapel, and Pine Richland are all outstanding school districts and while the homes are still a bit pricey, they aren't nearly as bad as Squirrel Hill.

Gift funds (100-150k)I'm assuming I'd also need reserves in the range of 6% of all outstanding investment property principal.

@Mark Kao - a fixed 3.75 and 4.25 is outstanding, wish I could get those numbers on some of the NOO properties I'm looking at right now.My opinion is that if the condo is paid off and you haven't had any bad experiences with the HOA, nor have any reason to believe a series of special assessments are on the horizon, then I'd do as others have suggested and pull maybe 50-75% equity out to expand your portfolio.

I am not in a tax lien state, so not sure how that $18K applies toward outstanding liens.

You can also include in the additional terms of the contract that any outstanding debts against the property are to be paid by the seller.Feel free to reach out with any other questions and I'll do my best to help.