Estimate utilities and figure out who pays them (separate meters, landlord paid, etc)5.

Most of us get paid a percentage of the rent so a reduction is not benefitting them financially.

Quote from @Dylan Gomez: I inherited two homes, both were paid off one was livable, and I now live in it, the other was a rental in TERRIBLE condition.

In all cases the sellers are asking anywhere from 70% to %150 of what they paid for just a year or 2 ago.

Ran into many problems with contractors along the way, paid for some material twice as well as some projects to be redone.

Unless you paid cash?

or, do you cash flow only after you've paid back your closing costs and your rent ready costs? 

@Richard Rafferty, given the relatively small nature you are looking to take on with your first syndication, personally, I would find it hard justify the typically 20-30k+ for a paid mentor. 

With family it can get tricky as you want to make sure they understand you're going to be flipping the contract onto an end buyer for possibly more money than $1M and that's how you end up getting paid... family can take this in the wrong way LOL :) 

You can learn so much and get paid while doing it by working with someone who is doing what you want to do. 2.