They get so distracted counting their spreadsheet dollars they forget to quantity risk, what neighborhood they are buying in, or if their agent is recommending they pay more for a house to get into a better area, in order to decrease risk.Instead of painting an entire industry of professionals as crooks, what would be helpful is if you provided examples of the investments you made.

If you assume a note (wouldn't recommend) you are decreasing your capabilities. 

If you screen your tenants effectively then that will lead to a decrease in deferred maintenance, less late night phone calls, and less hunting down rent checks.

I think trying to sell a note where the note holder and property owner don't match would create red flags and probably decrease the value of the note. 

I think @John Warren nailed it though....if you send in a plumber to all the united to check faucets, toilets, valves, etc. you could probably decrease a lot of small leaks and reduce the bill somewhat significantly. 

You are figuring out how much you can decompress the cap rate (increasing income and/or decreasing expense) so when you apply the current market cap to that future NOI, the deal is attractive enough to pursue."

Last year was on pace for just shy of $1000/month cashflow (decreased by choosing to do some early improvement).

I can see that population has been decreasing in Jackson over the past 10 years.

We were looking to house hack in a property that would hold good long-term value, 3 or 4 units in a specific part of town, built after 1990, 2-3 bedrooms in each unit, that would decrease our cost of living by at least $1k.

@Zachary RayLeverage decreases cashflow.