On the credit score I look for specific things, like a car being repossessed, delinquent utility or phone bill.

I would give Bill the business.  

I have to agree w/ Bill Pohl - it's a case-by-case basis.As an investor - we always want to create a scenario where we have as many options available as possible, and as much time as we need to get everything done.  

but curious what those bills look like? 

@Bill S. 

He charges per square foot, and bills to the exact number.

So if you buy say 100 NPN seconds for next to nothing. and 60% work out you just walk from the rest since you paid pennies on the dollar.. and you concentrate on the big returns on the one's that are performing.I do have a casual contact who bought 1.5 mil of NPN 2nds and this equated to 100 plus of them, when asked how is it going.. the reply was very stressful I have 40 attorneys hired across 10 states doing all these foreclosures for me the billings are out of site and I am worried I will not even recoup my principal.. now this is someone that had the smarts to attain that kind of capital to buy into this position but I don't think they fully understood the work it takes when you have 40 or more notes that your trying to work out or foreclose on.Its a business for sure...

We clear a bit more than 1k every month after bills and other living expenses from our jobs and by November we should have enough to payoff the balance of the 5k loan completely.My question is, should we pay this off as it is the highest interest debt we have or use this money to finance the downpayment of an investment property sometime later on? 

You send out letters to people behind on bills or to owners of vacant/abandoned houses...or people who just inherited a house they don't want.

They might owe student loans, medical bills, past repo, etc, but pay their rent first.