On some contracts, I noticed that in the area of assignment to the assignee, that it says "pay an assignment fee of $______ (payable $________ with signing of contract and balance at close)."

Use balance transfer promotions with the credit cards, or use Home Depot and Lowe's credit cards to finance the rehab.

Do a balance transfer ( maybe finding one with travel points for wedding purposes, still researching.)

In other words, if your investment has higher return than the interest rate, basically the money you borrowed is making money for you and you get those extra income for free.It does put more risk on you so better to find the balance point.

If those "investors" are lenders, then you also have all of the liability (the most a lender can lose is the remaining loan balance, while somebidy with equity has their net worth on the line)...

I have purchased with seller financing with $10k down, and seller carries the balance for as low as 4.5%.

@wayne brooks and @ brent coombs bring up a good point.When I was listing short sales, I'd always list the property at or near the balance that was owed on the loan, then I'd systematically reduce the asking price over a couple months until we got a solid offer.

I'm not trying to avoid risk altogether, I just want it to be balanced.

Guess what happens after your Loan is paid off.... part of your mortgage is too and you still have a property that spits out money.If I was you I would be all in with RE but I have a feeling paying the higher balance off (if you haven't consolidated) would fit better with what you would like to do.let me know if this helps or you have questions.

The outstanding balance on the owner's mortgage is $70k and I could probably buy it for close to that.