George - you have Texas as your state - is this correct?  It was my understanding from talking with investors because I was also interested in this that in my state (Texas) the owners have 2 years to pay you off but the interest is like 25% a year - and this is supposively set by statute.  So if you don't get the land you at least get a guaranteed investment of 25% per year which isn't a bad deal for the small amount of money you could be putting out.  Thanks for reminding that I wanted to look further into this