I currently have a small portfolio of 12 loans just to check it out. I went conservative, and at eight months I'm averaging 9% with no late payments so far.
I was up to about 50 loans, mostly from buying them on the secondary market within Prosper (Folio). It was pretty fun but got in a situation where I needed to liquidate.
You can resell loans, even sometimes at a 3-5% profit if they have solid payment history. All told it took about 3 months to sell all of them and cash out fully. i suppose if you really needed the money fast you could take a loss and offer up the loans at a 5% discount or more.
I would say your success is going to be based around the general success of the economy. For the last 7 years people have generally done well as defaults are at a minimum. The minute we hit a down turn people will start losing their incomes and your profits will suffer. That's part of the reason I got out when I did.
Once we buy our house I would say I'd go back to playing with minimal amounts just to diversify a bit.
