The single family homes attract a unique renter and also have the ability to be sold for a higher value if home buyers for primary residences return in force.

Even though our tenants are generally fairly clean, I don't want a prospective tenant to see the occasional dirty dishes, pile of toys, etc., and think that we don't care how a tenant maintains the unit.

The prior owners we're definitely sloppy DIY'ers with many "unique" fixes to a slew of issues.

Also a few more thousand down should not be an issue as I have a few toys I had planned on selling anyway

You can determine expected performance based on past performance and make adjustments for expected economic conditions.None of this can accurately be done to a property.The first issue many small investors have comes from the very basic understanding that real estate is unique, there are no two identical properties on the face of the earth.

I have toyed with the idea of REI for about 6 years now, but feel that I have finally gotten to the right place professionally, personally and financially to make sound decisions.

That's a pretty unique benefit of BP, you have direct access to the top notch investors they bring in for podcasts.

We have this on a one page sheet and the buyer signs it.The seller must send an Auth to Release Info to the mtg company so the buyer can verify the house payments are current.The seller must report to the buyer when the mtg payments were made.You can either have the seller e-mail the buyer each month, or use a servicing company or I've had owners create unique logins to their mtg info online and the buyer can check 24/7.There are other small things, such as not withholding a rent credit for a late payment, but that all makes sense.Keep in mind...the law specifically states that ONLY SPECIFIC ITEMS OF THE PROPERTY CODE RELATE TO A LEASE OPTION.Also, the seller must have fee simple title, which is no big deal as that is how we hold title in TX, but you can't (per the law) do a SLO.

I would love to learn more about your experience with a hard money lender as we have been toying with the idea of using one our selves.

Just like self-directed IRA it allows you to invest in alternative assets, but offers some unique features that are not available with SD IRA, which make this plan superior to SD IRA and Checkbook IRA (IRA owned LLC).