This is almost identical to the ordinances (and challenges of enforcing them) in most other counties.We suggest that, when you use them, you should do as most builders and Realtors do - putting them out on Friday night and collecting them on Sunday nights.

Even though the buildings are identical, maybe one building has higher rents than the other?

You can change that with a memorable identity and MONEY (direct mail, billboards, etc.) and/or TIME (going out and NETWORKING with people in the RE business, etc.).Motivated sellers will not be falling from the sky (despite what the gurus teach).

Obviously, some of these were foreclosures but not all of them and now, we are seeing crazy prices that are well over $100,000 greater than previous sales of similar, often identical, properties --and not foreclosures.

The Internet has become one of the leading sources for identity theft.

Compare cash flow of a property with no mortgage to an identical property with identical rent and expenses but with a hypothetical zero percent mortgage; the principal payment reduces the spendable cash flow. 

And a new identity for YOU as an investor. 

Hence, if you are not seeing credible opportunities on a regular basis, you need to refine your activities, such as identity building, marketing collateral, outreach rituals, peer connections, conference attendance, seller communication, etc.

Property 2 will likely qualify for a slightly better mortgage rate due to the type of financing, but for the sake of argument I'd like to compare them with identical financing.

The two properties are also nearly identical in look and unit type (same developer) so instead of advertising separately we combined the budget of both and got a higher level of advertising on Apartments.com.