<p>jym, VM is only a broker. Your BIL’s best bet for finding a stranger willing to lend to him is one of the peer-to-peer sites listed earlier in the thread. But from what I read, if his credit rating is too low, he will not be accepted by these sites.</p>
<p>ellemenope and Mom2M, I do trust the BIL to be honest about what other loans he has. He is not a bad person, just childish in his approach to money. And we do have good information on the inheritance that is coming at some point, as my DH not only shares in it, but administers it. By making it a secured loan, I am increasing his cost from $99 to $549 plus mortgage recording fee, which could be as high as $1000. This reduces our risk quite a bit. Making him pay for a title search decreases our risk only slightly (we guard against the risk that he is lying, which I consider so low as to be almost negligible - even if he is lying, we also have the inheritance to draw on via the demand clause - the minute it comes in, we call the loan). </p>
<p>My tax advisor is my sister, who does this professionally. I sent her an email this morning, but she is travelling to other relatives for Christmas and may have left already (I am not sure what day she is flying). I do have some tax questions that I am going to ask in another thread, in case she does not get back to me.</p>