If your student loan is at 6%, your opportunity cost could be as high as 9% depending on your nominal income tax rate.If investing your money into a rental property is going to produce a return greater than your opportunity costs, then invest.  

maybe consider paying a realtor a nominal fee for rental comps as you get areas narrowed down.

I typically increase even if it is nominal so that it is an expected annually. 

The nominal part of housing relative to the economy - buying, selling and building homes - is about 20% of GDP.

Ownership will go solely to me. this alleviates them of the monthly payments and puts the liability on me. i'm figuring this would be a nominal loss/profit or breakeven due to closing cost, but at the very least I would avoid the hard money lender from foreclosing and having to go to courts to prove my stake in the property with the money I initially put downopt 2- WHOLESALING the deal. this would still be a buyout only i would go under contract and assign this to another investor to take over. my assignment fee would be what my down payment was on each property so this would be pretty much a break even. going this route i can avoid having to pay out of pocket for closing cost since the end buyer/investor would pay that. note: i'm the listing agent on one of the property and another broker is listing the other property at 1% commission, with both paying 3% to the buyers agentlooking for feedback or creative ways to minimize my risk. if there is any possible way for a profit would love to hear that as well!

This is the phenomenon of buying an Inflation adjusted Asset.Another concept that Investors don't get is the difference between NOMINAL and INFLATION adjusted Prices.To us Investors that lock in 30 year fixed rate Mortgages when we can, the most important inflation number is NOT the CPI because it's Inflation Adjusted.

I am pushing back, willing to credit for a nominal amount per blind.

You provide the initial capital for the purchase and finance and they refinance - Depending on the cash you have at hand, some brokerages like Merrill Lynch allow you to borrow against it at a nominal rate.

A couple of cases I went down because the tenants were violating lease terms.Since I don't have a TON for rentals here, rather than selling and buying in TN anew, I thought with the fairly low volume of involvement, I either:A) Pay a friend a nominal fee periodically when there is a vacancy to show the house and to do basic maintenance tasks as needed.

Your initial question said 10% over Fed Rate, which I believe we all assumed you meant as being a nominal 10% greater.