i agree with lonnie but let me build on that. first, your credit report is based largely upon your pay history. paying early does nothing to boost your score ,but paying late will reduce your score quickly. so, pay on time. next, CARRY A BALANCE. it will actually lower your credit score if you do not use a decent portion of your avaliable credit. also, maxing out your credit cards will also hurt your credit, it is optimal to carry between 30-50% balance of your avalible limit on your cards. do not worry about intrest as long as what you are purchasing is ultimately going to gain you more in value that the cost of the intrest. i.e. why would you worry about a 25% intrest rate if you are going to make 50% on the house you are investing in?

We may even give some lame guarantees to reduce their potential loss (out of our discount).   

If you have a mortgage balance of 50k on that house, your equity is reduced to 50% (50k)So when you hear someone say "I can get a home equity loan for 80% LTV (loan to value) that means a bank is willing to let them borrow, in total, up to 80% of the value of the house.

Looking for a realtor who can assist ASAP with a drive by inspection and photos of a property we are about to buy the note on NW of Charlotte, West on the 85, up the 321 N.Looking for type of neighborhood, rentals or owners, vacancies seen, valuations, and crime in the area, etc.While we will try to work out a modification to get them paying again, we might have to either get a deed-in-lieu and do a short sale, or go through foreclosure process & sell the house after that.We would want the realtor to be with us all the way, and will pay you full commissions for any help in selling it.

What I would do...1) Sellout.2) Purchase a triplex using the lowest amount down possible to a) secure a place to live for yourself, hopefully eliminating or drastically reducing your living expenses and b) conserve your remaining capital3) Invest in cash flow opportunities out of city/out of state.  

2) Drive around and find neighborhoods that are well groomed and have a history of low crime THEN look for listings in that area?

I'll admit my risk tolerance may be higher than others, but I am looking to grow my portfolio of properties as quickly as possible while interest rates are still low and deals are still plentiful.As Hattie mentioned, a HELOC may be an option to tap into the additional equity and reduce/avoid closing costs.

We reported it to the FBI Internet crime reporting center: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx, although they aren't likely to do much about a "small" crime like this unfortunately.

Durham property crime rank since this is BP...) and note dcvb-nc.com redirects to http://www.durham-nc.com/ (Just my observations - not to be construed as a pitch, endorsement, opinion, etc., ...)

With crowd funding, each investor is small and therefore this reduces the over the should factor you might get with a larger investor or HML.On the downside to crowd funding, it is a lot of work to do it right.