As a landlord even trying to help is just inserting another person without the specialized training into a volatile situation.

Lower end properties may generate higher yields, but the risk is greater and so is the volatility.

Of course generically you should never buy a property for over appraisal but in Memphis that often means not buying a decent deal.We stopped getting appraisals years ago they are too volatile in Memphis. 

Seemingly rates have gone down values have generally have increased.( with some volatility in there.I just wonder if there is eventually a decoupling of these - or maybe that’s not possible or maybe this leads to a massive debt crises due to increased risk taking.

In such a volatile market that college rentals are, you simply cannot miss the bubble. 

Wasn’t sure what the fees would look like and not sure if the volatility/fees would be worth the short term increased in earnings.

At the end of the day if your returns are better and less volatile using real estate than investing in the stock market there is nothing wrong doing it.

They have a little higher gains (a lot more volatility) but a syndicator who is willing to put you in a deal with more than 10-20% of your net worth is asking for trouble.

A few B class rentals in a good neighborhood my have volatility similar to a bond fund.

On a more granular basis, the Zestimate prediction might have a harder time predicting houses that are more expensive (fewer comps, more days on market, higher price volatility) than ones in smaller price ranges where the AI has more to learn from and where price volatility will be lower.