The other issue is that you want to protect your personal assets from liability caused by your rental property.

The closing cost and associated fees often add up in these transactions.In the examples that I saw … Essentially there may be a mix of private/creative/bank money to get the asset initially.

A few things important to our team would be a strong screening/application process, tenant and team communication capabilities, and digital key/gate access integration. 

Their low interest rate mortgage is a huge asset.

Step 1 - figure out your target asset class & then your target market. 

Perhaps focus in on why you haven't been able to strike a deal to buy the preferred asset and strategize what must change to make that a reality. 

But one argument in favor of refi is that you can get cash at a low interest rate to invest in stocks or other assets.

From a “landlording” lens, however, I’d recommend recruiting a solid team of locals (e.g. attorneys, leasing agents, property managers, contractors, etc.) who can help you with closing, leasing, maintenance, repairs, and capex.New construction and turnkey assets are also popular among long-distance investors, since you either won’t have to do much maintenance or capex at the outset (in the case of new construction) or can work with a single, full-service point of contact (in the case of a turnkey property).

They are a special asset class that take some deep knowledge.

With this approach, you can truly be passive - effectively hiring an asset manager to deal with finding a quality property, hiring contractors to do the work and hiring property managers to handle the tenants.