Instead of mortgages, some states use First Trust Deeds.mortgage bankerFor a more complete discussion of mortgage banker, see "Types of Lenders."

And, a more important question, if these are family or friends, are you ready to lose them, if a bad surprise arises? 

This is a more time consuming process because time and work needs to be done to fix up the home and money needs to be invested into rehabbing. 

Now to bring it down to a more realistic level, you can become a deca millionaire which IMO is my goal in life, I believe that a mixture of 401k, roth IRA, RE, owning a business and savings can get you there. 

Even a more modest debt like $50k will take any excess income that a young adult would put towards buying a home and put them 10-20 years behind previous generations, and that in itself will set back their accumulating wealth. this generation is well and truly f*cked.

MTM will allow you to make changes to the rental agreement in a more timely fashion whenever the need arises.

I'm obviously trying to stay low cost here as it's a flip and use a more lean contractor.

 A gradual increase may have been a more successful approach.  

Secondly we are about to move, and I'm considering a house that would need a more major rehab than we have ever undertaken in the normal course of life.

Your interest rate is very attractive and you are getting multiple benefits from owning the property (income, tax break, mortgage pay down, appreciation, and leverage).Personally, I would probably find away to hold on to the property unless you had a more attractive investment opportunity.