Bravo, I voted for your post and would love to get your sources for yields / loss ratios for the peer-to-peer lending sites.However, you gloss over the real estate portion which is the primary inquiry by the OP. 

@Mark Ferguson  your confusing a civil matter with a potential criminal matter,  and usually its just a cease and desist and a small fine like 2500 to 5k.the state does not have to prove a monetary loss as they did not lose money.. if the owner of the property choose to sue them then yes they would have to prove damages..But the state is just looking for illegal activity and selling real estate without a license is illegal. even if the person made little or no money.If we did not need RE license's then you and I would not need to have one .. do all the CRE and try to do the right thing by our clients

If that doesn't work offer to sell the home to the owner for a very small profit if any, cut your losses and move on.  

You can wait for appreciation, but you should never buy something that bleeds from day 1 without being pretty experienced and able to cover those losses.

If the house appraises for less than you can argue that the value isn't there and they need to walk away with a loss.

Yes you have counted 5% vacancy but what about the cost of turnover repairs, evictions, loss to lease etc. 

I dont concider this money as a "loss". you got awesome experience from it, witch nobody can take away from you, plus in the end you are still making money that came with the journey.

So lifestyle ,  choose wrong money manger ( and did not have enough financial education to vette his own investments) led to a complete loss of his wealth.. and a start over. 

Each month you should get or be able to download a report for the previous month in regards to loan activity and loss mitigation efforts.  

Hi all, as my role is to help RE investors prevent avoidable losses, I was curious as to the location of the property in question relative to current fires in the area.