But it turned out, it was his roommate (who moved in without telling me, but turned out to be a good tenant) that was doing the cleaning up.

Has owner financing come up in your conversations with your friend from church?

In those 3 years I mentioned, this was the similar story - the following year more than made up for the decline experienced in the preceding year.

Another great strategy is leveraging trained VAs to handle lead generation—whether it’s cold outreach, follow-ups, or data gathering—so agents can focus on closing deals.

You should look to link up with investors in those areas and get some feedback on the good, bad, and ugly. 

We did a step-up of the $3.1M to $5M and having the other $600k from the appraisal gifted to the syndication. 

In US tax law, the depreciable lifespan of an asset is defined by its MACRS classification which stands for “Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System.”Under MACRS, depreciable assets are assigned to different classes, with each class having a specific recovery period.

-Transfer the property into an LLC – This may allow me to take ownership while potentially avoiding property tax reassessment, however this sounds like an involved process-Establish a living trust for my aunt and mother – The trust would specify that I inherit the property upon their passing and provide step up in cost basis but i'm worried that the living trust can be modified to have me removed (who knows what can happen) - My mother is somewhat volatile.I would like to live in the property and my mother will live in her second property with her husband. 

That's why these screening processes exist, if anything ever comes up like this and you get that red flag, and not everything aligns, if you're getting those red flags this early on, imagine what will happen when they are Planted into the home?

Building strong relationships and continually learning will set you up for success.