simple question to ask, are investor dividends being paid out of net operating income or reserves? 

It's a bit expensive, but do it once and forget about it. 

Would you be better off selling and purchasing a less expensive property that would require less carry should it become vacant for some period of time?

Plus, there are upfront costs to consider, like furnishing your condo and any expenses tied to managing it as a rental.As for refinancing, it might not be the right time with interest rates where they are.

Understand Realtor (Agent) Fees- In Germany, real estate agent (Makler) fees are typically paid by the buyer and can range from 3-7% of the property purchase price, plus 19% VAT.- These fees are due at closing and are part of the overall transaction costs.6.

Living in one unit and renting out the others allows you to deduct 75% of expenses like mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, and shared repairs as rental expenses, while the remaining 25% applies to personal use.

Home last sold in 2007 for somewhere around $120k, currently could sell for upwards of $400k, so it's probably paid off or has very low interest rate.

I have invested 7 times. 5 of 7 are not paying out and have not paid out and now asking for more capital. they have no idea what they are doing. they are over their heads.

I guess from an "all things being equal" framework, what are the variety of reasons that an older home are more expensive to insure than newer homes? 

I paid for the subscription for a few months and drew my own custom Google maps areas and color coded them red/yellow/green based on a "grade" I felt came from a few metrics like crime/average household income/etcI also really like realtors dot com new maps, if you search for an address and click on the map and then go to the top left and choose the Value slider it will give you a nice color coded map of which areas of a neighborhood are higher valued.