After a roller coaster of a closing, we secured it with some equity.

Dump a couple of gallons of finish on and paint it on with a roller a few times.

They would have to be fairly stupid to do that if they are intent on skating though....

And the tools required for those tasks are a paint brush and a roller, and a shovel/rake.Good luck man.

If fact, I don't want to invest money with a syndicator if the syndicator can skate by on acquisition fees and management fees while I'm left with zero or negative returns.

I will tell you from personal experience in my young career that when I made the jump to go full time in this industry it has been a roller-coaster of frustrations and excitement.  

It is another to deal with the roller coaster of emotions that arise from tenant abuse.If you are going to make this a rental property be prepared to say good bye to all of the little details that make this house an emotional treasure trove.The tree that you planted as a child will soon have a tire swing hanging from it and the ground underneath will be barren.

While I recognize the housing market can be like a roller coaster, I expect to hold onto it for ten to forty years - whatever makes sense. 

The more important underlying issue is that, most likely, you don't have a valuable skill that you can offer to the market (communication, sales, marketing, people relationship, a roller decks of high net worth people whom you have developed a close relationship with).

Especially for me, because it's normally like 10-15 older guys (45-70),  so to it's intimidating knowing you're going against the big rollers in town.