Unless you are just using the term mortgage colloquially and you really mean just an unsecured loan.

Also here are a few "never do's" to help you understand the risk: Never do deal if the property can’t be valued properly (no comps no deal)Never do a deal without a third-party escrow Never assume the third-party vendors will not make a mistake (deals take longer then planned, watch out for scope creep)Never do a deal without property insurance Never do a deal on owner-occupied (there are laws that can get you in trouble here)Never do an unsecured loan

I'm thinking we'd have two options - one secured, and one unsecured.

The main difference being that one is leveraged and one is unleveraged.

Also many debt funds issue unsecured bonds or LRO (see peer street) which could have a significant impact if the fund were to go belly up.

I'm renewing my unsecured LOC today...at prime plus 2.2%, which means a rate north of 10%. 

They basically have an unsecured note, with no other means to recover the shortage if you default. 

It unsecured debt; so, seems doable.

but yes virtually every Heloc or unsecured LOC can be frozen and called unilaterally by the lender.. this is a fact.

 - the op is talking unleveraged and unleveraged RE does not significantly outperform broad based stock markets often (meaning it occurs rarely).