Use My Equity
How owners can put unused or underused equity to work in a sound transaction, receive different benefits, and remain passive without first making an outright cash sale.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH AND ALEJANDRO DUQUE · JULY 2019
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
Papers from transactions, not theory.
Darryl and Alejandro write about creative real estate exchanges, equity, seller financing, notes, and partnerships in plain English. The library brings together closed transaction examples, practical questions, and original papers from decades in the exchange rooms.
START WITH THESE THREE
Three short ways into the library.
Start with what your equity earns, how it can move, or which benefits matter most. Each paper stands on its own.
No. 24 · 6 MIN READ
What Would You Keep After Selling Your Property?
The sale price is one number. What remains after debt, costs, taxes, and the transaction itself is a different question.
No. 25 · 6 MIN READ
Seller Financing: Would You Want to Own the Note?
Seller financing can produce income and help a transaction close. It also makes the seller a lender. Understand the borrower, the security, and the exit before accepting the note.
No. 02 · 4 MIN READ
What Is Your Equity Earning Today?
Most owners know what they paid and what the property is worth. Far fewer calculate what their equity earns at today's value, and that number can change the decision.
BROWSE ALL 30 PAPERS
Choose the subject that fits the question.
Open the subject closest to your question. Each section contains the full list, and every paper stands on its own.
FoundationsBegin with equity, benefits, and the choices beyond a cash sale or 1031 exchange. 9 papers.
8 MIN READ
What Is Your Equity Earning Today?
Most owners know what they paid and what the property is worth. Far fewer calculate what their equity earns at today's value, and that number can change the decision.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE
The Stairway of Benefits
Cash is often an intermediate step toward the benefit you actually want. This ladder helps compare what each kind of equity gives you and asks of you.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH
We Are All Different
Before any transaction, an honest self-assessment: what role are you ready to play, what is changing, and which benefits do you actually need?
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH
Seller Flexibility Equals More Options
I drew this paper as one picture: each additional form of acceptable consideration can bring more possible buyers into view.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH
What Would You Keep After Selling Your Property?
The sale price is one number. What remains after debt, costs, taxes, and the transaction itself is a different question.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE · SEPTEMBER 2026
Seller Financing: Would You Want to Own the Note?
Seller financing can produce income and help a transaction close. It also makes the seller a lender. Understand the borrower, the security, and the exit before accepting the note.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE · SEPTEMBER 2026
You Want Less Management. What Would You Keep?
You may want fewer calls and less daily involvement while keeping income, control over important decisions, or an interest in the property. Begin by deciding which responsibilities you want to give up and which benefits you want to retain.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE · SEPTEMBER 2026
What We Mean by Your Equity
A simple answer to the two questions owners ask us most, your equity and equity marketing, with one example in dollars.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE · SEPTEMBER 2026
Transaction papersThe terms, people, and problem-solving behind real transaction examples. 7 papers.
Asset Growth Using Non-Cash Equities
One piece of vacant land, moved through a mortgage, an apartment building, a government building, and a mobile home park. A true story, and how to prepare for your own version.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · AUGUST 2018
Finding Transactions in Slow-Moving Properties
Stagnant listings are full of transactions waiting to happen. Two closed deals that cash buyers had passed over.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · JANUARY 2018
Land Assembly Formula
Seven homeowners, one developer, and a formula that gave every family the same premium. Today it is a 360-bed student housing project.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · JANUARY 2019
Lease/Option Formulas
When a seller and buyer cannot agree on today's price, a lease with an option to purchase can bridge time, use, and value.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · MAY 2018
Leases: Vacancy = Equity
Rent lost to vacancy is gone forever. One landlord exchanged ten years of empty space for a free-and-clear development parcel.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · JANUARY 2018
No Cash Acquisitions
A debt-free beachfront property, a buyer with no cash, and a transaction pieced together around approximately 70 percent seller financing and 30 percent in exchange.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · JULY 2018
No Money Down With Benefits for All
A seller in no mood to sell, a developer with no cash to buy, and a formula that paid the seller a 25 percent premium anyway.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · OCTOBER 2018
Notes & paperHow notes are valued, exchanged, protected, and repaired when something changes. 6 papers.
When Selling Your Note Makes Sense, and When It Doesn't
Selling paper can turn a difficult note into cash quickly, but the price may be a large discount. Five questions help decide whether that choice is worth it.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE
Note-for-Note Exchanges: Your Problem for Their Performing Asset
You hold a note you no longer want. Someone else holds an asset you would rather own. A negotiated swap may move both owners closer to what they want.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE
Joint Ventures on Notes: Sharing Risk and Upside
You hold the note; a partner brings capital or expertise. How note joint ventures are structured, how the economics divide, and what to demand of a partner.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE
Technical Default vs. Maturity Default: Why the Difference Matters
A borrower who stopped paying and a borrower who reached a balloon date are different situations. The facts behind the default should guide the response.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE
Five Alternatives to Foreclosing on a Defaulted Note
Foreclosure is one remedy, not the only one. Five alternatives help a note holder compare timing, cost, risk, and the result they want.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE
How Note Buyers Price Non-Performing Notes
The discounts feel aggressive, but they are not arbitrary. What drives a buyer's number, and why knowing their math tells you whether to take it.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE
Working togetherHow prepared owners and counselors find more ways to reach a workable transaction. 5 papers.
Partnerships
A cash call in the 2008 recession, answered without a single question, because of one thing: integrity. Plus twenty-three rules for being partnership material.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · APRIL 2019
Preparing for Increased Transaction Benefits
Reflections from the school of hard knocks: markets move without your approval, so plan the recovery of your principal before you plan the profit.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH
Reading and Thinking
A short case for making time to read and think before acting, plus one practical book kept within reach of Darryl's desk.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH · JULY 2019
In Darryl's Words
A few lines from our senior partner's webpage, because they keep being true.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH
Redemptive Real Estate
Gifting From the Heart. My faith-based view of freedom, abundance, significance, and using the temporary resources in our hands for permanent good.
BY DARRYL MCCULLOUGH
Inside the exchange roomWhat happens in the room, the language people use, and how ideas come back to the owner. 3 papers.
What Happens at a Real Estate Exchange Meeting?
A prepared broker brings the property, the owner, and the real question to the room. The room brings possible takers, transaction ideas, and offers for the owner to consider.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE · SEPTEMBER 2026
Real Estate Exchange Terms: What They Mean for an Owner
The room has its own shorthand. These terms explain what the people are trying to learn, offer, and solve.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE · SEPTEMBER 2026
What We Learned From Pete Fortunato
My notes from Pete's Paper Course in December 2023, the ten lines I keep coming back to, and what Darryl took home from it.
BY ALEJANDRO DUQUE · SEPTEMBER 2026
PREFER A CONVERSATION?
Bring us the question behind the reading.
Tell us what you own, what is changing, or which paper caught your attention. The first conversation is complimentary.