The thing that the gurus never tell anyone is that the majority of creative finance deals are done by investors who don't need creative financing, that is their leverage and why they can walk away, thereby making them more attractive then the one person who can only do the deal one way because they have no money of their own.

.- If interest rates remain high, this is further upward pressure on rents in the near-term, as the alternative to renting - buying a home with a mortgage, is expensive - this should increase demand for rentals. - Rents are also a function of supply - 2024 saw the most new construction of multifamily units in American history (nearly 575,000 estimated 2024 deliveries of new multifamily inventory), and 2025, while not a record setting year, will see deliveries top 500,000 again - a huge supply increase. 

Whether we agree with these items or not, the following are inflationary government policies: stimulus, student debt relief, tariffs, increased child tax credits, limited immigration, and big government deficit spending.

By accelerating your depreciation schedules, you reduce your taxable income which in turn increases your operating cash flow.

In this era of increased rates, obtaining properties that will produce a good return are harder to find and often involve quite a bit of work.  

I am only curious and trying to educate myself on sub to as it seems rather attractive to me as a non-US buyer who has access to emergency lines of credit, albeit, maybe limited to 200k. 

Ideally a HELOC is used for less then a  year project where you can refi or sell to pay back the HELOC. 5 years is a long time, things can happen and if you reduce the cashflow on both properties you'll be increasing the risk and having thinner margins.

@Nadia Jones Starting and running a fund is a separate business because it's something that you need to actively market for and regularly work on attracting capital to invest in. 

Low down payment (3.5%) is attractive, but comes with mortgage insurance and might not offer the best rates.

And during inflationary times rental rates increase.