Chuo line is very long, but if it were a "good" station, you could most definitely find someone who would want to live there.I actually think that the lower end, affordable housing market near central Tokyo has strong demand because of the economics and lifestyle here.But I would make sure the math works right from the start.

For ease of math let's assume the LTV for the Oakland property is a meager 50%, or $385,000.

It may be there is another guideline that is shifting the math on the loan, or that the secondary market has no appetite currently for the 5% DP loans.

When I do the math on renting out a property, like in Texas, for a 1 bed and bath and compare it to the median rent for the area, the rental income doesn't cover the entire mortgage, property tax, fees, etc., of the property itself.

If you're not putting any $ down, that PITI payment is looking to be close to $6k monthly without utilities and general maintenance and there's no market for $2k single bedroom rentals so the math wont work well. 

Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate... yes i was taking the sellers position and safety.. however its something to keep in mind if they balk a little one could offer this does not have to super high rate maybe just a tad over the wrapped rate. but one could show them the math on it and it might swing the deal plus when they learn that its a safer way to do these it could also put the buyer in good standing with the seller ??

But for me, I know what lifestyle I want to live (it's not Bezos-level), and we've reverse-engineered the math to see how many properties we need to achieve that lifestyle when we want to retire in 15 years or so. 

I've done the math roughly and honestly the cashflow is coming out much less than I'd hoped for by a long shot.Based on similar homes here's where I'm at. $2,500-$2,700 in rent but have a $1,900 mortgage (including current property taxes) plus $100 for insurance, plus a 10% chance of no one renting and another 10% set aside for repairs.After all that I'm in a range of breaking even or making $200 a month with this as a rental.

Your partner's math checks out for their ownership percentage.

It doesn't always come down to "math" on these types of homes.