@Nick Wimmel  - I defer to the experts that have already commented on the South Bend area. 

Perhaps the tenant is using too much TP but reading your follow up posts suggests your home has deferred maintenance issues you’re unwilling to properly repair and only willing to implement duct tape level corrections. 

Both cashflow and appreciation are present here.

This weekend I was lucky enough to attend an MFIN - Multi Family Investor Network - conference here in Colorado and see BiggerPockets CEO @Scott Trench share the stage with @Ben Suttles and @Feras Moussa talking about the future of real estate investing, plus a number of other keynote presentations and informative breakout sessions.

I understand the trepidation of co-signing, so i'm looking for a reasonable offer(s) to present to anyone that would consider doing this. 

This takes away the unrealistic expectation to meet some made up metric.Flipping presents the perfect analogy: in any market either the front end or the back end is hard.

So if you sold your new property for exactly what you paid for it two days after buying it you would still be paying the tax that you had deferred in the 1031.So, going from CA to CA doesn't benefit you.  

Those are questions you need to answer.Also, just because they finally were raised to market rent (or close to it) does not mean that they deserve a 'present'.

I find that two of the biggest mistakes are in the manner in which you ask for the money (there is a good way and a not so good way) and not having enough knowledge on the subject and the proper info on the presentation of the deal itself.When I need to fund I deal, I am not asking for money, I am offering a legitimate and alternative opportunity for others to make money.

s excellent answers to your question a read—they do a great job presenting the complexities of the new construction vs. existing property dilemma you posed.