A few years ago a friend of mine in his 80s passed away, leaving an estate of about $350K-$400K to be divided among 4 kids.

This is likely, but I'm not sure how likely and I'll leave that decision to you.Option #3 Pay off the loan.

Through my experiences I have always felt intimidated by being in the drivers seat myself, and cautious about leaving my comfort zone.But now, with my retirement goal looming, I feel I need to place my feet in this arena, and begin my own personal investment portfolio, in addition to continuing what I do best, provide financing to others.I believe by joining this forum, I can do both.

I agree with Robert, especially as Mfg. continue to leave the area.

It is my understanding that they are very similar except that under the lease/purchase, the "buyer" is guaranteeing a certain number of lease payments and if they leave the property before the end of the contract they are obligated to pay the remaining payments anyway.

I have a thick skin and I assume others do as well, let's face it one of the "benefits" of posting questions on line is that you know you may get a bit "flamed" for your posts.Again, I could just tell everyone "wow, you're a genius, you'll be a millionaire in no time" like the gurus do.

She seemed nice, but we never went in to her apt. b/c she said she was leaving at the end of the month.

I read where most of you have regrets about the deal you *didn't* do and the investor vs. observer thing but I'm still having trouble deciding how to convince myself to leave the relative safety of knowing I can make all my payments to letting other people make them for me and worrying about what happens if they don't later on.

Are you open to leaving some of your inside REO knowledge onto this site?

I'm thinking about the following1. form an LLC of which all owners are members and are all actively involved in the day to day operation of the business2. we make decisions together, though most of everything will be specified up front in the operating agreement (what we will buy, how we will spend money, and how we make decisions about when to buy, when to sell, etc)3. make sure to include clauses about "how people can leave and get their money back" and "how we can force someone out of the group" -- these will all be family/friends, but you really do never know what will happen with people and money.my questions are:1.