Just sold some of my property out of a trust.Think of a trust as a big safe deposit box.

IE hey I will make this less than safe investment because if it goes pear shaped the company 7 years from now will replace it with another note.

Is this $500 threshold discussed elsewhere or is that just a "safe" limit you use?

That's because the alternative (safe investments with anemic yields) is not workable.

The tax assessor ratio times purchase price is the most often cited technique for determining what portion of your cost basis can be recovered through depreciation.

I have never done this, never even tried it, but it seems that plenty of people here use this technique.

This way when you do get a property under contract you have a very high likelihood of selling it to someone.As for finding the homes, my best techniques are: Mailing to absentee owners (google for a list), divorced couples (divorce attorney) and Probate.

To be safe I would call a mortgage broker and he should be able to tell you the rules.

But if I remember correctly, their techniques were such that I remember vaguely as being a problem being a Realtor and doing those such things at the same time...idk and seeing that I was new as a Realtor, I didn't want to get into any trouble..But moving on, Thanx for your answers on all my questions !

Start focusing on creative no-money/low-money down payment buy and hold techniques vs conventional financing and use your cash to kill the personal debt.