I say you are VERY wrong.In my area older renovated houses demand top dollar on rents and I can find distressed properties or motivated sellers so I can buy at huge discounts for cash.I do not have constant repairs as I fix them up correctly after I buy them.House values are based on comps.

You could probably go as high as borrowing up to 80% of the after repair value (ARV.) 0.8*165,000=$132,000.

@John Fleming I'll look them up.

In the end, the net profit to myself would be higher using a loan versus giving up an equity split, and less complicated.

On properties that stay pretty booked up too. 

just sign up with Auction dot com  10X and get on their mialing list 

Our mortgage at the moment is around $2100 including taxes and insurance, this would obviously go up if we do refinance.

While you're double-checking your numbers for the 17th time, a pro already locked up the property, negotiated seller concessions, and lined up financing.The real question isn’t "What surprises new investors?"

I am not an accountant, but we have our entities set up so our subsidiary LLCs are owned by our parent LLC.

Quote from @William Hochstedler: Utah has been booming for the past decade by every metric. my kids did deposits on ski condos at Park City  NEW development and one at Brianhead and those things shot up like crazy.. they need to keep it up so they can take good care of me in my waining years.