My concern would be the vacancies between school years (June through August) and having to account for loss of rent.

It just kills me when I see a west coast marketing rep talk about how they had to get rid of this provider or that one or they have to get on them.. that means a nice innocent buyer has been abused in a transaction sometimes to very big financial loss's....

@Jacob M.Like @Cameron Tope said, knowing what your criteria are is essential for determining if something is a deal for you.COC is a rather shallow metric, especially when comparing with other investment types as it doesn't take into account the advantages of leveraging, on paper losses and other tax advantages that you get with RE.

Just food for thought: What would happen if you bought an investment property for 200K which cash flowed $500/mo. with an ROI of 17% (just an example) and the month after you bought it the value dropped to 150K?

If she is throwing money into the mix, have it titled in your name and give her X time to refinance, within which time if she does not/cannot you can sell and return her investment to her, minus any losses. 

Can't beat the food regardless. :-)

We assumed liability for all repairs unless they were insurable losses, and if those happened we pay the deductible and she has to file the claim. 

So if you're kind of on the fence for this idea and could be nudged either way, that's food for thought. :)

Hi David, thank you for this it is an interesting read and there is lots of good food for thought.But for me I am not a fan of Syndication, (yet) and I do believe that the main reason for this is the lack of direct control I end up having.I have ventured into Partnerships over the years and with the exception of the one I have with my wife, none of them worked well for me, I understand this is more than likely a result of my approach to them, so I am confident that I can make it work, to me its a matter of finding the right place, and after a lot of conversations about Memphis I have decided this is not where I want my first Large Apartment purchase to be.I am now going to expand my search into Texas and possibly other surrounding states to see what can be found.

It's a great location for commercial suites, CVS, or fast food restaurant.