Typically to grow a real estate business and raise money you are better off partnering with someone.

It may sound nice to pay a 6% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no additional fees.

Self-managing can save money, but it requires effort upfront to find the right team.

Eric,, I think why people go for the fund model is the idea that they are spreading their money into multiple notes being held by the company.. while in theory this is great but as you noted you don't really have any security compared to being the beneficiary of the debt instrument IE debt is in your name. 

They loved it because they got some play money right away and steady income each month without having to deal with toilets and tenants.

Owner finance for purchase private money for rehab.

It appraised for 320k which is obviously a great spread but you have to remember closing costs, carrying costs, hard money costs and the cost of the refinance.

In all reality I’m not sure I got any more value , because the buyers just could not wrap their head around the fact that they were there and would save money.

The long-term moves are to get a concession to buy down the rate for good (not a 2-1 or 3-1 buy down), it's a smaller number (i.e. .25% or .5% decrease on the rate), and getting their full closing costs covered is money out of their pocket today they'll be saving that could be huge to give the buyer more money for repairs and/or furniture along with just life expenses. 

Most agents will need you to provide a pre-approval from a bank or a proof of funds.As far as strategies, depending on the market, off-market deals generally go to investors using cash or hard money.