I pay him a flat fee of $400/wk.

I know of one farmer getting $2,000 (or a bit more) per acre for flat row crop land.  

Rents are flat, slightly declining.

Do you have them quote you a flat fee for the entire project or hourly?

Which is normally some flat fee or 1/2 a month’s payment.

Assuming the market stays essentially flat for the next decade, I am thinking I will look at the mortgage and determine when the house will hit 25% equity, and agree to get the owner off the note around that time (25% EQ + 6-12 months cushion).

They will have to have an "Authorization To Show" allowing them to unlock a door.They will also need an agreement with the party they are showing the property to, an agent can't just take people off the street and say anything about a property without having an agency relationship.What you'll be asking is for an agent to do some leg work for a small flat fee and no hopes of earning a commission of a property they show.

I expect prices to be relatively flat for the next couple of years, but to hold the gains we are seeing today.

So, if lightning strikes and burns the entire complex down, the Master Condo policy should rebuild the building, your "Fire" policy should finish the interior of your unit (new paint, flooring, cabinets, appliances, etc.) and possibly even cover your lost rent while the premises are uninhabitable, and your tenant's "Renter's" policy should replace their flat-panel TV, sofa, bed, clothing, laptop, etc.Does the policy get taken out to the LLC or us as individuals?

He has been through about 4 cycles he said and he said each time for commercial multifamily was the leading drive on the rebound.If you look at cycles they all have similarities and some differences.Recognizing these patterns leads to the best portfolio and the best returns versus risk.What Rich said holds true in that you avoid the herd mentality.People that do not invest prudently do good with some properties and then the others bring them down to a negative to flat position for years before you can recover.Some of these syndicated pools of investors look at the big project as a smaller risk.That is fine if the gamble is made based on the funds entered is only a small percentage of their total worth.Example if the have 2 million liquid and want to spend 100k for an interest in a property that could throw off very high returns than they are still safe versus their overall portfolio.I can tell you that buyers think "I am buying so low there is NO WAY I can lose on this!".