Every note I purchased I made sure I would be comfortable owning the real estate.

I would say that its personal preference on what you feel most comfortable with.

@Kelly Miller I spent 2 years studying real estate before I felt comfortable jumping in.

I have been reading tons and trying to be come comfortable with the ins and outs (from an outside view of course).

The caveat implicit in my advice above, is that you need to have something to do with the money to invest to earn a good yield that you are comfortable with the risk of..

Yes those numbers are correct, but there are some details in this deal that are out of my normal comfort range.

Make sure it's in rentable condition (or find out what it would take to get it that way and adjust your offer accordingly) and if an SFR make sure it matches with other houses in the area (i.e. don't buy a $200k+ house in an average $100k community).Also, please be comfortable with where you are.

But then I'm personally not comfortable without a cushion.

It seems to me maybe go all the way with the Reg A blind pool and also offer the Reg D 506 (b) approach for folks that are not comfortable unspecified projects?

We have these cushioned metal office chairs at the dining room table from a downsizing at my husbands office- 7 years and good as new.