But the nice thing about a commercial property is that you do have control over the value of the property. buy-out costs have to be baked into a business plan along with a clear understanding of what the property can produce over a given timeline. $2.2M for 12 units could be a really good deal in a good location with the right plan or it could be money pit and the end of an investor if it is in the wrong place or a bad building.

if so, this had high risk written all over it for all parties, as in todays market it is very rare to find properties that will produce positive cash flow with 100% leverage.  

I do 12-month leases all year round and it actually produces more income.

Even if you found a deal for $200,000 that produces $9,000 a month income, that's a complete unicorn that you probably found off-market.

If it's permissible then the #1 feature for top producing STR's is proximity to water.

It's a means of producing income, not long-term wealth. 

We started with flipping to build enough cash to start buying income producing properties and have decided STR's is the way we want to go.

I also wondered about if it makes sense to tear down and build a pergola and nice retreat style area for family events and then put a tiny house there.

Remember they can add 75% of the potential income that the small multifamily will produce to your DTI ratio. 

This means cash flow is producing 4.3% ROE.