Okay, I start to understand the appeal here.

If you are talking about REITs then that would involve the stock market and again is not appealing to those who want some sort of control on the day to day operations of your investments.

Upside curb appeal, downside upkeep?

Among investors, most tend to specialize - sfrs, duplexes, and apartment buildings are three distinct animals - they appeal to different types of tenants, and the tenants kinda control the maintenance, management, and vacancy expenses.

There are investors that do this kind of thing with HUD homes as well.They sign paperwork at closing that they are occupying the property.Another component of this is fraud to a lender on a loan if you say you will be living there.The reason is lenders give certain rates to owner occupants because statistically you will fight much harder to keep a place you live in.If it's just a bad investment it is easier to walk away hence a higher rate and more down.This property from what you said is 2,400 X 12 = 28,800By half is 144,000 at a 10 cap based on 50% costs.The carpet and paint the bank put lipstick on it it appeal to a home buyer living in one unit and driving the price up.On a quad typically you could expect about 8,000 for the siding,4,000 for the roof,6,000 for 4 outside A/C units,if interior bathrooms and kitchens are outdated about 4,500 by 4 units is 18,000,then water heater and heater about another 6,000 total.So conservatively I have about 42,000 in immediate CAPEX.Every areas cost is different so I am just throwing mine out there.Now the other you say 20 quads total is what you need to worry about.If there are a bunch of short sales and foreclosures from vintage 2004,2005 loans then the new purchaser with a cash offer or a small debt service will rent below market to fill quickly and turn more or the same monthly cash as you.So you starting out at 600 rent monthly might go to 550 or 525 in your development.I have seen this happen.I have also seen even if your building is well kept quality tenants do not want to live next to the other buildings where landlords put in suspect tenants to fill up.Also some landlords with high debt service will drop rent instead of repair to keep tenants so they won't spend tens of thousands out of pocket to rehab.

Heavy renter population does not appeal to homeowners.

I had followed the suggestion of writing a letter of appeal stating what I had done.

However, in this letter they stated "Due to a large number of appeal applications, your appeal may not proceed to hearing for over 12 months."

Hey Bill - IMHO in response to #5, I don't see this as being a very appealing deal for a buyer.

I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment if you expect it to perform well given the nature of stairs.Lately I've been putting laminate in my rentals and have had great success with durability and eye appeal.