In my own case I have the cash; but the re-fi is the 'proof', so I am thinking of doing the re-fi anyway (and paying it off early) it is an important step to demonstrating what a lender thinks of what has been done for the value of the property.

Robert,Not yet, but I'll tell you what I just got off the phone with one of my close buddys that practices real estate in Florida and he is open to doing a joint venture on an apartment building in Ohio.

Going to check out an investor brokerage this Saturday who hosts's ARV practice evals a few times a month.

what is the first step to purchasing an over the counter lien?

Now his next step is close the land asap and get started on the actual construction work.

Perhaps you don't exercise the option until after they pass away, at which time there may be a step up in basis.

@Josiah Collins The first step to take is to talk to a several hard money lenders, learn their rates and get pre-approved.

I am not an expert on this by any means.. there is a fellow in Indy his name escapes me  I think its Ken Myer or something like that.. who is big in this business and he might even have a educational arm to his business.. its probably worth the money to pay to have up front training before you step into this big of investment.I personally see this as buying a on going business not really the rental business.my experience with my unit .. is it was only 44 units.. but really nice ones it was not big enough for on site management.. so if I did this again It would have to be big enough to have on site management to show the units and keep people from sleeping in them and hauling all sorts of garbage into them like a hoarder.Don't do as I say.. but when people didn't pay and went dark ..

This is a very poor business practice.

Your next step, aside from intensive financing and investing research/study, is to now take the money you were using to pay down your bad debt and put it towards saving up cash to invest in a DB and for reserves once you buy your first investment property.Difficult to go far in this business without either cash or a cash partner.