IMO, many HMLs don't understand this and take advantage of a situation to advance thier self interests irregadless of the outcome to a borrower.A good lender can assess the risks, the viability of a project, understands the market, is aware of costs and liabilities as well as the legal aspects surrounding the business and from that determine what rate of interest and fees is ethically justified on a case by case basis.

Im assuming you felt very confident in your due diligence to take such a risk.

2) If houses like this come on the market and are not worth buying a bit cheaper from the bank in order for your self to resell it for a profit, would it be a good rental investment?

I had a gentlemans' ranch in Oregon in 1980-being self sufficient and worrying about kids (4 at the time).

When you buy a property, you essentially buy a self-contained business which requires systems be put in place in order to run smoothly.

I'm confident of getting the liens removed. here's a blog I wrote about it: http://sycamorevista.org/

It would be interesting if workplaces offered a way to invest in real estate deals or trust deeds/syndication deals how many people would choose that type investment over investing in the S&P500 for example.Of course people can use their funds to invest via a self directed IRA , but this is a bit more complicated and of course nobody will tell you about this at your job.

Anyways, if you go this route, you can save your self money for rehab costs and also for investing in future houses.

Keep the best rentals, invest the money from the flips into more rentals, 1031 into larger and larger properties.You can also earn more from your rentals if you self manage.

If you can read and self-teach, then scouring this forum, blogs, and books is a cheap (Or FREE) education.