My attorney told me this week that the note is only as good as the collateral, and I cannot stop turning that over.

I have never taken title so I have always thought of this from the other side, watching sellers carry paper and wondering what they are actually holding. My attorney said it plainly: if the buyer goes quiet, you are not collecting payments anymore, you are managing a foreclosure, and the thing you get back at the end is only worth what it was worth when you wrote the note. He meant that the rate and the term and the down payment are almost secondary questions. The collateral question comes first. I have been looking at a fourplex in Tacoma where the owner is open to carrying at 7% over 15 years with 12% down, and I keep running the numbers on the income but after that conversation I went back and looked at what the building would actually bring at a distressed sale in that zip code. The gap between the note balance at year three and a realistic distressed price in that market is not comfortable. I am not in yet.