Buy any property and do an internal and external rehab, change all components and you have your own turnkey asset...In a syndication deal, you are holding paper and not any equity in an asset. dependent on others to operate the asset. 

We had to stay in a hotel for 2 weeks which was unexpected but that's covered under the $10k.

Otherwise, you could look into non-conventional loan options (outside of Fannie/Freddie) that allow for less than 20%, such as local credit unions.As for your numbers, you're missing a few important components; the big items would be maintenance, CapEx, and utilities (water/sewer/trash) for a 4-plex.

That being said if one of us loose our job or get into any unexpected expenses it is nice to know we have the cashflow to fall back on if things get tough. 

In your experience (taking on board that the unexpected can and will happen) in reference to thinking long term, is it best to try to plan out 5 years?

HUD contacted me, told me that I need to pay the tenants unexpected moving expenses about $1500 or I could lose my ability to rent my property.

Well, it got stuck over the weekend and our elevator technician replaced several components to no avail.I've received quotes that vary from around $100K (for what I understand entails just replacing only the cylinder) to almost double that amount (for replacing all of the equipment and the cab (car)).

In RE investments you'll have unexpected expenditures. 9\below 10%CoC and 167k for a duplex seems high in my opinion ($900/unit).

What kind of unexpected problems have you run into? 

The percentage of credit utilization is one of the biggest components of the score.