Many Real Estate Instructors or Guru's out there will charge you big bucks for their program and then once you have purchased their program, you find the system doesn't work or you never hear from them again. 

My initial thought was to start a holding company with the 400k and start doing deals.

I've read about the premium they charge and the shoddy rehab in some cases and the lack of rental guarantees, etc.

If there is over 250 dollars worth of personal property left you have to store it for ~7 days (can charge reasonable storage fee) if more its something like 45 days.

Owner finance (similar to contract for deed if that is legal in your state) is a good way to get out of your situation, with the possibility of making some money on the deal.Ask for at least 10% down and figure out what interest rate you would like to charge (depends upon their credit, I suggest nothing less than 8% even with impeccable credit.)You can use a mortgage loan calculator online to get the amortization table, and there are companies out there that will 3rd party service the loan and report to the credit bureaus for you.I suggest finding a real estate attorney in your area that has done these to structure it correctly for you.

Or better yet, would it be worth my while to message you and ask you that seeing as how I did read your initial post and that may be out of the realm of this board?

The banks get more of a spread than that; these days you're lucky to get 0.8%, but the bank is charging over 3% on the loans.

For example, Heaton Dainard charges a $250 desk fee and only a flat $250 for each transaction.

As people get more successful and older they do not want all the business and will give you some if you show initiative.

They were very fair on their charges & I got a 3.875% 30-year fixed.No doubt about it, I couldn't have pulled this off without Mike H.