There's no way to guarantee a value but you could always hire a private appraiser to get a rough idea, but whatever financial institution you're going to end up using is going to hire their own appraiser.

Banks and institutions generally trade in large quantities of notes all at once, so it's difficult for individual investors to buy directly from them.

Adding to the mix was that there was an SBA 75% guarantee on much of the principal.We were able to negotiate a three way agreement with the lending institution and the SBA to sell us the note for $1,775,000, a $1,575,000 discount.

Using my trusty CCIM Institute financial calculator, if you get a 80% LTV loan with a 20 year amortization, then break even for 20 years while the property gains nothing in value (which never happens over 20 years), the rate of return is still 7.18%. 

Has anyone come across a financial institution that will do home equity line of credits or smaller cash out refinances under $50,000? 

Read this Vox ArticleWhat do you think about how institutional buyers impact individual investors, the housing market in general, the rental market, etc? 

And how do I set this up with my financial institution?

I come from the institutional world where this is an absolute must.

Ultimately my plan is to start a private equity real estate firm and an educational program for young entrepreneurs (already have started institutional order flow in the foreign exchange market, and accounting) which is why I put this thread/discussion in the CREI section Thank you for your time!

Institutional investors are a professional class of organizations that manage large sums of “institutional capital” (money), such as pension funds, university endowments, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, or family offices.For example, CalSTRS is a pension fund that provides retirement benefits for California’s public school teachers.