Promising returns from actual real estate investments, Baccala instead invested the funds in the stock market.

One thing I can promise you is that John won't be the last person that has a huge success as a result of hard work, dedication, and drive.  

., Donahoo allegedly promised investors a 1-3% yield paid monthly from hard money bridge loans made to small businesses.

You tell them what you're up to and promise to use them for your deals.

I understand exactly what you are saying in your post and i completely understand your point of view but, we are a new company and I promise you that we are going to make every single effort to become one of the leading lending providers and we base our morals on family, and community.

My mentor has been in real estate since the 80's and after they recently open a restaurant, they persuaded me to do the REI first from first hand experience.My promise to you: I will never ask you a question without researching it first, but there are so many things to learn I may need to ask a seemingly general question to point me in the right direction from time to time (weekly).   

There are many free resources online to learn how to find them and there are many expensive programs that promise to show you how to find them.

Two of areas that come to mind as buyer in a lease option or a "contract for deed" for deed transaction are :1) Title: Since you won't receive title until your last payment, the current owner is at risk of  future liens or judgments that could attach to the property before title is transferred.2) Enforcement of performance:  If the seller get's cold feet or something should happen to him & his heirs or someone else take's control of the property, can you be sure that what was promised will be carried out.This is not a comment on the trustworthiness of the seller, it's about educating yourself & having the wisdom & foresight to preventing expensive problems in the future.  

I just completed a review of 40 markets and some others that are looking promising are Omaha, Des Moines, Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

New home buyers in these townships tend to be second home or summer home buyers from the greater NYC metro (2.5 hours away).And while job creation and economic growth in Sullivan and Delaware Counties in New York state are slow, the 3 - 5 year economic outlook is much more promising.