Checks are a little more secure since they are made out to the escrow company.

What Fred Ramos is talking about is something called Substitution of Collateral (Substitution of Security) clause in the note which allows the Maker to move the note onto different property (with caveats).

WILL REMUNERATE YOU WITH REFERRALS OR A CASH PAYMENT PER PROPERTY DATA SUPPLIED.

I plan to save up enough money (Im not sure how much I would need to be secure) to purchase my first investment duplex (stay in one unit and rent the other unit out).

@ZachExactly crawl which is a form of action so you want to read and process what you've learned then team up with someone at your local REIA club make some offers, secure a contract on a fix and flip or wholesale project then re-up.

I can say that if all that us supplied, the loan is possible, I have experienced same in the past, admittedly not in the last 18 months though.The longer term loan - That makes sense David, thank you for the explanation.

I can't seem to find any posts answering this question (although it probably has been asked before): when lenders require a 6 month reserve does that typically mean cash/savings account/CD or will they accept liquid securities like mutual funds, stocks, etc?

When these new spammers/scammers/etc. reach out to you they will know a surprising amount of information about you; your interestes, hobbies, causes; your {online} acquaintances and the organisations/institutions with whom you deal.From the "geek seat" of my non real estate job {Information Security & Privacy), it has been interesting watching this evolution.

This money, however, was NOT secured by the property.

Of course, I'm not sure I could secure a loan for that.