If they default or cause damages in excess of the security deposit, who do you collect from?

The law requires that financial institutions protect information collected about individuals; it does not apply to information collected in business or commercial activities."

Eventually, I'd probably want a property manager to handle everything and just collect a check, but I feel like as a new investor I need to have some experience to really know what I'm doing, and ultimately to have a comparison point in terms of value I'm getting for paying a property management company.

I did put about 12k into the house, then refinanced for 35k and now collect $775 a month rent.I offered 32.5k on a 30k list price.

Here, on a residential lease, we are not permitted to request or collect rent further in advance than the next rental period.

The document you saw filed probably had more to do with collecting the surplus money in the Clerk's account from the overbid....in ay case that document is irrelevant to their mortgage claim.

We start advertising a unit as soon as a the current tenant gives notice; given most our tenants are on annual leases, notice is at least 90-days out from the end of the lease.If we sign the lease months in advance we collect the security deposit at the time the lease is signed and give out keys when we received the first month's rent.

I looked into them, but felt they were more about collecting fees than really discussing REI.

Rich,I found this on the IRS site http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/What-is-Earned-Income%3F;In this link the IRS clearly says that interest is not considered "Earned Income"Now understand I am neither a tax attorney or accountant however, If I was in your situation my expectation would be that I could collect this income from holding the mortgage without reducing my SS benefits.Probably your best bet though would be to contact a tax accountant or tax attorney (or both) to be certain.

If we assume it is AR, then here is what you finance department says about private party exemptions:A person who engages in seller-financed transactions or who as a seller of real property receives mortgages, deeds of trust, or other security instruments on real estate as security for a purchase money obligation if: (a) The person does not receive from or hold on behalf of the borrower any funds for the payment of insurance or taxes on the real property; and (b) The seller does not sell the liens or mortgages in the secondary market other than to affiliated or subsidiary persons; (xi) An individual or husband and wife who provide funds for investment in loans secured by a lien on real property on his or her or their own account and who do not:(a) Charge a fee or cause a fee to be paid for any service other than the normal and scheduled rates for escrow, title insurance, and recording services; and (b) Collect funds to be used for the payment of any taxes or insurance premiums on the property securing the loans; The issue with the rule interpretation is that in some states an MLO must be employed by a company licensed to conduct the activity of brokering or lending.