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You don't get bleeding from a heart attack. In fact, one of the major treatments for a heart attack is to give blood thinners -- something you can't give to someone who is at risk for massive bleeding. I think you are being told a story here. I see two plausible possibilities (I'm sure there are others) where one might be able to be technically correct about this being from a heart attack, but still deceptive at the same time:

(1) he had a heart attack because of the massive hemorrhage. So, technically, he may have died because his heart stopped beating, but the fundamental cause of the heart attack was some sort of gruesome incident (maybe a bad fall, maybe an attack, etc.). As he bled out, his heart didn't get enough oxygen, and it died. Technically, the guy would have died from a "heart attack," but that would hardly be a full and honest description of what really happened.

(2) he may have had a heart attack recently, been on blood thinners, and then some otherwise minor incident led to massive bleeding.

I'd say there's also a good chance the whole thing has just been sugar-coated as the story passed from person to person. I bet if you investigate, you'll find something less-than-natural happened here.

But that's in the current economic climate. There hasn't been a large jump in interest rates, so the motivation hasn't been there. Imagine a year or two of 70s-style inflation. A loan at 7% when inflation is 12% is pretty expensive, too. The whole motivation for DOSs was to help lenders clear low-interest loans when interest rates go up. We just haven't had the right situation to see mass-invocation of these clauses. To date, they have largely been used to protect lenders from getting stuck with a different borrower than that which they originally signed up for. When that's the only issue, then yes, they will be happy with the note as long as it is performing. But I think it's naive to think that it will always be that way, even if rates shoot up.

My (limited) understanding of that law is that (1) it was written to specifically enhance the lenders' ability to enforce DOS and (2) the exemption to which you refer is for a living trust in which the original borrower is a beneficiary. I'm not familiar with it applying to an LLC, but I don't know that much about its application (and doubt that there have been many challenges to it because of the current economic climate anyway).

It's not so obvious to me. What if interest rates go up quite a bit over the next year or two and the lender wants to get some low-interest loans off the books? Even if the payments are coming in, the lender may wish to use any excuse to call the loan due, get the money back, and re-loan that money at the higher rate.

I think at that time it may be too late, but you'd have to look at the specific contract.

Hello and welcome from a fellow resident of the volunteer state. I'm sitting more in the middle of the state, here in Nashville. I hope you find the information here as useful as I have.

The best thing to do is find out what other comparable places in the area are renting for. You need to know what your competition is and what "market rent" is for each of your units. You say you have been "lucky," but it is possible that you have set your rent too low (below market). The most useful thing I have found is to call the numbers on "for rent" signs to get info about the unit and its rent. The trick is finding enough properties that are similar to yours so you can get a good feel of what true market rent is. A lot of the successful landlords I know try to shoot for a little below market rent to allow them to increase the demand for their units so they can be more selective in picking tenants. Ultimately, of course, the whole thing is a series of different trade-offs.

There's a lot more to life than just money. I would think long and hard about what I want to do in life if I were in your situation. A great career can be intellectually stimulating and may open doors to worlds you never knew existed. I'm involved in cancer research, and I get to see and do things other people could never imagine. I get to work with equipment that is unbelievable in what it can do, and I get to work on problems that nobody has yet ever solved. Better yet, I get to work with other people who are doing other, even more amazing things, and I get to help them solve problems that they encounter with their research. I also get to know that my work, and the work of those with whom I work daily, helps in a small way to make the world forever a better place.

For me, personally, if my whole life were about nothing but making money, it would seem a little hollow. You can always invest in real estate in your spare time. I find it interesting that many (but not all) of the really successful investors at my REI club are not full-time investors -- they choose to keep their "regular job." One is a physician who now makes more money in real estate than he does in his medical practice. He loves it because he says "now I'm just working because I love to."

A friend loaned me a tape of a Robert Allen seminar and basically this is exactly what they are training people to do. They have them cold call anyone they can find with a note, get the info, and say I'll get back to you. Then they call up a real note-buyer (one of the companies that specializes in them) to see what they will pay for it. Then they try to arrange a purchase for more than that, with the hope of pocketing the difference. The whole thing seemed a little far-fetched to me, since the note owners could always just go sell their note themselves if they wanted to, but I guess it sells a lot of seminars. My guess is that you are encountering a lot of his graduates.

Generally, retirement funds are so much better because of their tax advantages that it's usually best to maximize those first. Once you've done as much as the government will let you in terms of retirement funds, it's time to start talking to your CPA about the possibility of getting that house paid off quickly.

You are only getting the tax "savings" for any amounts paid above and beyond the standard deduction (i.e., the amount in deductions you get to take without itemizing anything). For 2006 in the US this is a little over $10,000 for most couples (though there are ways it can be higher). If your total interest+taxes+other deductions fall below your standard deduction, then you are getting NO tax savings whatsoever from your mortgage. A lot of people fall into this category and do not even realize it. They believe they are getting thousands of dollars in tax savings from their mortgage (probably because they were told this by a mortgage broker) when, in fact, they may be getting no savings or a trivial amount at best. It's definitely worth discussing with your CPA.

Having a paid-off mortgage opens a lot of doors (and you can still enjoy the beauty of the standard deduction).

If you want to invest in real estate, having a paid-off mortgage is great. You can set up a HELOC to allow you to make quick, cash purchases without paying out hard money rates. If you are doing quick resale, then you just pay off the HELOC balance, pocket the difference, and move on to the next deal financed the same way. If you are doing long-term purchases (rentals) you can still use the HELOC to make you a cash buyer, then finance the property once you own it, then repay the HELOC and move on to the next deal.

There are also a lot of intangible benefits to paying down debt, but that's more of a personal thing that's hard to put numbers on.

Reminds me of a property my dad once saw advertised as "overlooking the Gulf." (It was next to a Gulf gas station).

I looked a property once that was near the highway and had a Lamar sign. I think it brought in something like $400/month. As far as I know, the property owner had no responsibilities (it was kind of a like a triple-net lease just for the little part of the property that had the sign).