Plus, my complex had 4 pools, 4 hot tubs, a gym/sauna, and security onsite that kept and held packages. 

You want your property to be viewed by the largest buyer pool and although saving 6% in commission sounds great you would lose a large portion of motivated buyers because your property is not on their agent's radar.

Jan 2016, quit my W2 and dove into real estate full time and have since purchased a Fourplex and  small seven-unit apartment building with a partner and concentrated on paying down our HELOC.Now with HELOC paid off, we are looking to pool our equity in exisiting properties with a portfolio lender to purchase larger 8-20 unit building.Hope this helps!

@Karim Zada like many have stated, NOVA is hard to cash flow, a few of the strategies I use in the DC/NOVA area are:1) My favorite because it allows me to purchase before the investor pool of buyers bid up the property.

At that time the development was half way done, and because there aren’t too many new constructions around, it seemed that the price is justified, considering amenities (pool, secluded community, running trails,etc) and quality of construction.

At that time the development was half way done, and because there aren’t too many new constructions around, it seemed that the price is justified, considering amenities (pool, secluded community, running trails,etc) and quality of construction.

You can get more bang for your buck in these areas, but you'll have higher rents and a much larger tenant pool in the other areas I mentioned. 

UTLS  etc .. permits many CA locations permits can be 50 to 75k per home.. but I like building these days as a preferable to heavy duty rehab.. last comment is log home in your area unless your way up in the moutains above SD  its too hot and sunny those log homes will get weathered pretty badly and they usually don't fit in the scheme of what is going on in the area like say a desert style home with stucco etc.. that can handle the heat and sun

For example very specialized TI work specific to the tenant could limit the potential future tenant pool for a building and therefore increase the cap rate whereas generic office space closer to "market standard" may decrease the cap rate.I also agree with @Peter Bowen, the actual cap rate for the building will be set by the market.

Problems with the structure or problems with the tenant pool doesn't matter.... but hey market is still up so you sell them off.