I have FINRA series licenses, all of the information you need to pass the tests to obtain those licenses is available for free on the internet, but that in no way means I could have passed without paying for an expert service telling me what to study and how it was weighted.

I am weighted more towards debt and preferred equity deals.So far, only one investment is not performing, and in that situation, it is some weird internal situation (too many cooks at the sponsor) and from what I can tell, not a problem with the actual property.These investments were a conscious decision for me to allocate away from my stock portfolio and after I made the first couple of investments, I decided that the only way for this to make a lot of sense was to get a big portfolio fast in different cities across the country.

I don't really think that the number of pools or types can be a good judge of how good a neighborhood is.What I like to see is good upkeep of each property in the neighborhood. 

So everything is weighted and calculated whether that loan is a good fit or not with your property or properties.   

They do not like rehabs or older buildings with higher upkeep and maintenance headaches.  

How much weight/consideration should go into it when making a purchase.

IOW, they must agree to be 100% responsible for the property, including all of the payments to include PITI, maintenance, upkeep, repairs, etc.

The term "high yield" is much like "Lose Weight Today" how much depends on the eye of the beholder.  

Now that is some serious weight.

I'm currently trying to learn more about the advantages also... hopefully someone with some experience with this will weight in here.Terry