The family left after ten weeks. The note stayed ours.
One private lender funded a $37,000 house in Youngstown. Two families have lived in it since, and neither one was the borrower on that note.
We bought the house in October 2025. The money came from one private lender, out of a self-directed IRA, with a mortgage recorded against the house. The first family moved in at the end of October and put $3,000 down. By the middle of January they had left, on their own decision, about ten weeks in.
The borrower on that note is us, whoever lives in the house. When a house sits empty between families, the note gets paid from our account, and finding the next family is our job. A recorded mortgage gives a lender a claim on the property. It does not keep the house from going empty between families.
The next family signed in February. A couple, first-time buyers, who asked if they could start cleaning before they even had keys. The answer was no, because nobody is in the house before the paperwork and the money are done. We signed at a library the next day, once they had the money, and handed over the keys there. They put $3,000 down toward buying the house.
For the lender, the house is the collateral. The payment is the income, and it is owed by us, whoever is living there.
Before lending on any note, ask the operator one question: if the family stops paying, who owes the note? A house like this, bought for $37,000 with a family paying toward owning it, is the kind of collateral a private mortgage note sits on. The Private Lender Starter Kit walks through the paperwork and the questions to ask from the lender's chair. It is at incomeoverwealth.com/kit.
As promised, income over wealth in under a minute.
- Dan
We bought the house in October 2025. The money came from one private lender, out of a self-directed IRA, with a mortgage recorded against the house. The first family moved in at the end of October and put $3,000 down. By the middle of January they had left, on their own decision, about ten weeks in.
The borrower on that note is us, whoever lives in the house. When a house sits empty between families, the note gets paid from our account, and finding the next family is our job. A recorded mortgage gives a lender a claim on the property. It does not keep the house from going empty between families.
The next family signed in February. A couple, first-time buyers, who asked if they could start cleaning before they even had keys. The answer was no, because nobody is in the house before the paperwork and the money are done. We signed at a library the next day, once they had the money, and handed over the keys there. They put $3,000 down toward buying the house.
For the lender, the house is the collateral. The payment is the income, and it is owed by us, whoever is living there.
Before lending on any note, ask the operator one question: if the family stops paying, who owes the note? A house like this, bought for $37,000 with a family paying toward owning it, is the kind of collateral a private mortgage note sits on. The Private Lender Starter Kit walks through the paperwork and the questions to ask from the lender's chair. It is at incomeoverwealth.com/kit.
As promised, income over wealth in under a minute.
- Dan