One possible reason is that they are desperate and willing to accept unfavorable terms like that.

But we have the OPTION to rent it out and the let the home pay itself off should the market be unfavorable to sell.We like the flexibility of owning, the feeling of building equity (we do bi-weekly payments and extra principal so in the long term we’ll pay hundreds of thousands less in interest).

The unfavorable factors you point out are really no different than any other sales job.Consider your same formulas for my $350,000 new construction house I am selling. 

Hard to find any multis under $300k these days unless they're distressed or in unfavorable areas.

It sounds easy in theory - but when I tried to look at the least appreciated areas in the past 5-10 years, these are all very undesirable areas with unfavorable population/job trends. 

However, as I said in my March 2019 update, if the City of Austin doesn't get ahead of our housing challenges by reworking it's land use and development code, it's only a matter of time before the market itself "sorts out" the issues in a way unfavorable to many of the major stakeholders.

Not to mention I believe trusts can be taxed much more unfavorably than a partnership.

I would only refi when the rate differential made sense, to avoid an unfavorable rate adjustment, or to remove PMI (like with a FHA loan).

As long as we can keep some positive cash flow and not have to refinance during unfavorable debt market conditions, we should be able to ride out market crashes.

The information has kind of dribbled in but I see nothing in your latter posts to indicate any unfavorable tax situation other than that ridiculous claim by your accountant that 1031 wasn’t available.You owned it for multiple years and demonstrated your intent to hold.Your accountant evidently treated it the same and gave you the depreciation benefit.It sure sounds to me that you’re going to only pay capital gains rate and have to recapture the depreciation.