As an old boss told us once, 'you are standing waist deep in water complaining about how thirsty you are'.

Hard to say if it will empty your pockets  , you dont say how deep they are 

Maybe we change history and have a 15 to 20 year run between cycles.. nothing says we have to have 10 year cycles.. and the 09 was so deep seems to me it took 5 years to really come out of it and we are really only in year 5 or 6 of the up cycle. ?

That's an example but something in the middle ground that works for both of you.I'm a bit non-plussed with some of the large multi-family syndicators who like to talk about how they can force rents up for lower income people and in almost the same breath talk about how they help the same people with their charity...I think, like everything else there is a productive middle-ground where you can earn good returns and not force people into bad situations.

There are so many ways to approach it and I don't often go deep into the amortization schedules.

I find that most folks who put an action plan together, neglect to dig deep enough to discover and articulate their why which is probably the most important component of all this planning. 

No matter how much rehab a property has had nobody will pay Class A rents in a Class C neighborhood.Plus, the nature and scope of the project could mean anything from light value-add on 20 units to deep value-add on 300+ units.

It depends on what you are looking for, if you don't want an agent to do any analysis or deep digging to find properties, your friends are probably capable of handling all the paperwork in a transaction just fine. 

I haven't dug deep into it but basically I should expect to pay higher down payments and interest rates in exchange for not having to verify my income.

None of this is a done deal, but it has potential to be a rare opportunity for RE investors that exercise diligence and intelligence.Intel 10 years ago decided to build there 10 B fab plant in Hillsboro Oregon and brought in 6k workers and single handily took the pdx metro out of the deep recession.. and it just keeps steaming along.. all the other companies that now want to locate there and all the talent they bring in.. some will go on to start thier own companies etc etc..