I believe it tends to give me a slightly lower return, because the sponsor is going to be more careful, and if there is a severe downturn will prevent me from taking catastrophic losses.

Please keep in mind, you may qualify for the 750 hour test for real estate professionals, but need to materially participate in the rental activities as well for it to be considered active (and take the active losses). 

Lower risk, lower reward.Flipping by yourself or with a partner is more risk, more potential reward(also more potential LOSS).

Perhaps there's a way for her to convert this house to either her primary residence (For 2 years) or rent it out and use it as an investment property so she can get more creative with the sale of the property to save on some taxes.If this isn't possible she'll want to try to offset some of the gains from the sale with capital losses as well as using any improvements and selling costs to lower her capital gains.

. - not my first choice, unethical, needs cashb) Get to do a 13% or 19% rent increase if rents haven't been increased since May 1977 or May 1976, respectively - I will find out if there are records going this far back in due diligence phase, if offer gets acceptedc) Operate with a loss or very low NOI for 1 year, after that we will be eligible to apply for a Just & Reasonable Rent Adjustment. - with this, we can potentially increase rents by up to 145% depending on a comparison with baseline 1977 level rent amount.I have 2 questions:1) If there exists these 2 other, legal ways to increase rent in a rent controlled area, why does it seems like the only option most investors consider is cash for keys?

If you have a loss from syndication investment ( the entire project went bust) can you use that loss (from the final K-1) to offset your regular W-2 income ? 

., via syndication) could achieve significant losses in the year of acquisition. 

. * [6-24 months] Whenever I find a job and qualify for a FHA multifamily, get that property (with break-even cashflow most likely), and rent the condo at a cashflow loss for a couple years until rent increases (due to high-interest on underlying debt)* [Almost immediately afterwards] At this point, do a cash-out refinance on the condo to pay back the SBLOC (unsure if this is possible immediately after getting the multifamily loan), and secure a lower rate for the condo itself.I know this strategy sounds like loser, as it bleeds money all around, but my hypothesis is:* Underlying assets should grow more than 8.15% in a given year, and I would not pay short/long-term taxes on stock.

Ok, I'm at a loss... 

Investors with experiences and losses recommend living within 3 or 4 hours of the rental, so it's easy to drive back if something goes haywire.My friends live 2 hours from theirs and it's a hassle.