Affordable Ohio Houses, Bought With Private Money, Sold to Families on Payments
Earn With Homes is a two-person real estate business run by Dan Wilson and Jon Smith. This site explains what we do and how private lending works in general.
What We Do
Small houses, real families, no rehab
We buy affordable single-family houses in Ohio, most of them under $80,000. They're usually livable but neglected: an overgrown yard, an absentee owner, a family that just wants to sell. We don't renovate. We buy houses that are ready to live in, or close to it.
We fund the purchases with private money rather than bank loans. Then we sell the house to a family on payments, usually rent-to-own first, with a path to owning it outright. The family gets a fixed monthly payment that's often less than area rent. The neighborhood gets an owner instead of an empty house.
Jon runs the day to day from Ohio: finding the houses, underwriting them, qualifying the buyers. Dan handles capital and strategy. Between us we've done over 170 real estate transactions.
Education
How private lending works
Private lending is an individual doing what a bank does on a mortgage. The lender puts up money for a property purchase, and two documents make it a loan instead of a handshake. The promissory note spells out the amount, the rate, the payment schedule, and what happens if payments stop. The mortgage (or deed of trust, depending on the state) is the lien recorded against the property at the county. It gives the lender a legal claim on the house.
Lien position matters more than almost anything else. First position means the lender's claim comes before every other debt on the property. If the house is sold or foreclosed, the first-position lender is paid before anyone behind them. If you're going to lend, understand why first position matters, and don't accept second position from anyone without knowing exactly what that means.
Amortized notes pay the lender principal and interest every month, so the balance falls over the term and the lender's exposure shrinks with it. Interest-only and balloon notes leave the whole principal at risk until the end. Closings run through a title company, which checks the title, records the lien, and issues title insurance, so the lender's money never passes through the borrower's hands.
We wrote plain-English explanations of each piece: what a private mortgage note is, how seller financing works, and how lending from a self-directed IRA works.
Risk
What can go wrong
Anyone who tells you private lending is risk-free is selling something. A recorded first mortgage gives the lender a claim on the property. It does not eliminate risk.
The borrower can stop paying. Then the lender is in a foreclosure process that in Ohio commonly runs six months to a year and costs legal fees before anything is recovered. The property can lose value or get damaged, which is why lenders watch loan-to-value and insist on being named on the insurance. Title problems can surface after closing, which is what title insurance is for. And the money is illiquid: there's no exchange to sell a private note on, so capital is committed for the term of the note. None of this is FDIC insured.
The lender's protection is their own diligence. Vet the borrower. Vet the deal. Read the note. Ask any borrower, including us, the questions a lender should be able to get straight answers to.
Who We Are
Two investors, one small operation
Dan Wilson is a former Air Force officer with 14 years of service who bought his first rental in his twenties while on active duty. Jon Smith came from operations management and handles underwriting and everything on the ground in Ohio. Together they have over 170 transactions across Ohio and Missouri.
More about us →Track Record
Completed deals
The houses we've bought, sold, and closed out, with the operator's side of each one.
See completed dealsWant to talk it through?
If you want to learn what it takes to be a private lender and figure out whether it fits your situation, apply for a discovery call — link below. It's a conversation, not a pitch.