So instead I paid cap gains (btw pretty low these days, may go up in the future.)

Best of luck.Dimitrius Kiritsis hit it right on the head, if I had to add anything from my experiences, learn what a CAP  rate, NOI ROI is in your, of course you'll need to look at rents for similar size apt units, I say the main thing is knowing how much the property is bringing in and how much is going out.

There is a cap on how much you can put in each year.It could be a good vehicle for cash down the road.

Not sure your tax basis but you also get to spread your  Cap gains out..

.- One investor is buying at cap rates in 5s or 6s.

Are you being capped at 66% due to DSCR constraints?

If you just want to buy rent ready properties and start collecting rent I would caution that you don't over leverage as you will only increase your cap ex spending all while eating into your cash reserves/equity.

In some places you can only raise the rent once a year (ie once every 365 days), there may be caps on how much you can increase it and you need to know how much notice to give (30-90 days). 

For example, if you expect this property to be have a CAP rate of 10 after you repair and it comes time to sell, maybe run your numbers at 11-12 and still see if it would be worth it.

It's brand new so there should be very little in repairs or cap ex for quite some time.