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.

Collect Finders Fees(only if you are finding properties for a real estate agent/investor and are able to convince them to be their assistant) -This is similar to bird dogging, but now you are marketing the property for this investor/agent and instead of finding a property, you are now finding a buyer.

Our retail buyer will wire in the funds, and you will be paid off your 110k and my company will collect the difference.Hows that sound?

Private lenders who may charge fees probably can get away with it if not objected to in a closing (like by a title company) but that can become an issue at payoff, in collections or default situations and if the lender is in violation, penalties can be applied.I, as a broker had originations of hard money from 1 to 2 points and origination fees, they were in line with secondary market costs but with a higher rate and usually at 10%.

@Will Barnard , NRD notes are those that prohibit the lender from having any other recourse in collecting amounts due other than accepting the collateral.

Their price is higher because they actually collect primary data from sources such as county courthouses, etc.

Around here that's 10% of the collected rent plus half to a full months rent for filling a vacancy.

For example, I am using currently one Dropbox folder to collect and share all closing documents with relavent- loan, title, Realtor, insurance, Apprasors, etc for a closing I'm working on.

(maybe water, garbage collect) These are just "numbers" like they are presented in every multi family, Commercial property.My guess is that reality is always different.