In effect, earnest money is just paying more of the down payment and closing costs upfront.”Keep in mind, this isn’t required, and it doesn’t guarantee your offer will be accepted.

Effectively offering more than 100% financing.  

Your referencing effective age vs chronological age. 

Sub2 is a risky strategy for a long term buy and hold as the longer the deal structure stays in place, the higher the chance that issues will arise (like issues with the loan servicer, insurance, seller filing for bankruptcy, seller dying, seller realizing their DTI ratio and ability to buy their next property is negatively effected and becoming upset about it like in your case, due on sale clause being called, etc.).

I have checked with our lender and keeping this home's mortgage will not effect qualifying for our next house.4.

It's a very simple and effective tool that you can use when evaluating rehabs, whether you're looking to flip or BRRRR. 

Quote from @Dominic Mazzarella: I would ask this, when raising capital for a real estate syndication, what strategies have you found most effective for building trust and credibility with first-time passive investors?

The PMS around here are pretty terrible, I've worked with a lot of the larger ones in Cleveland and I think they just take on more properties than they can effectively handle and don't hire enough additional employees to make it work. 

They don't understand how to price effectively, study the market, set boundaries with tenants, establish policies and procedures, communicate, and dozens of other things.

Detroit requires strong local relationships to navigate things like neighborhood nuances and property management effectively.