I would not rely on the owner/borrower policy in place to pay out any claim to you.

You can buy a note from a broker, rely on others to tell you what you need to know to earn the interest and how to get an attorney when you get in trouble, but you won't "know" the paper business until you know what it is you are really buying, how it is secured, your legal rights and obligations and the laws effecting the type of note you hold.

Once I have a Great realtor I rely on them, great schools, mls and zillow.

Would you then just have to rely upon the pro-forma?

Keep in mind their numbers are a bit skewed since they rely heavily on historical data.

I have a full-time day job so I'm not relying on real estate commissions for paying the bill, only to feed my personal real estate investing.

I would rely more on broker relationships to find the off market or narrowly marketed deals.

So, I rely on getting multiple bids to ensure that nobody is underbidding by a wide margin.  

A person with out a deep sense of personal integrity can usually be relied upon to carry out the letter of the contract most of the time which simply is not enough.

Solely relying on the 50% is risky.Great strategy!