If those same sellers would have held the properties for 4-5 more years, they would have recovered all the value from pre-crash times.

@Kathryn Bennett What I do, is flips in an LLC with an election to be taxed as an S-Corp, Rentals are held in an LLC.

I suggest you calculate IRR of the investment in two scenarios with all other variables held constant except loan paydown (i.e. the variable you're interested in).

None of these entities care if you are doing it for your own benefit - you will be held to the standard of a full-time real estate agent when it comes to fulfilling their requirements. 

If that is the case, then mortgage interest on a note is passive and not subject to UBIT.UBIT applies when a tax-exempt entity engages in a trade or business on a regular or repeated basis.Passive income not subject to UBIT includes royalties, dividends, interest, rent from real property and gains on the sale of an asset that has been held to produce such passive income.Trade or business subject to UBIT generally consists of services or buy/sell transactions. 

Not the false hope held out by someone who's making money off of you.

Long and short I held to my numbers (8-10% cash on cash) and the seller was unwilling to budge on his asking price.

I have to pay a monthly fee even if I don't do any tenant screening, but the platform also allows me to collect rent online and I don't believe they actually hold the money, unlike some other companies that have held, (and lost!)

@Christopher Winkler I don't know the laws in your state, but in PA, having a non-professional investor (such as a first time buyer) sign a quit-claim deed to be held in escrow until such time they default on their payments--that's considered a 'confession of judgment'.  

It usually happens over the decades when a locality upgrades a computer system and/or they change their parcel number scheme and it slips through the cracks so to speak... or on lots that have been held for a very long time, ie pre-computers... there are these 1/8th, quarter or half lots that are basically not "buildable" on their own... they are thought of as attached to the parcel next to it that usually does have a structure of some kind, but they are taxed separately.