Regardless of whether you use an ARM or balloon (extremely risky) to finance the investment, if the investment horizon is similar -- 20 years for instance as you mentioned, then you would (or can) estimate what you feel the average mortgage rate is going to be on the multifamily investment during that horizon.

This also poses risk for short-term mortgages or ARMs.If you're going to hold rentals, my suggestion would be to set a longer-term time horizon unless you feel like gambling...

I am under contract for a multifamily in the midwest, after the inspection was completed there are some concerns that are going to have to be addressed on the very soon horizon.

What is your planning time horizon?

This is going to help broaden my horizon.

Each step you take reveals a new horizon.

I just talked to him this morning and he said they're not making sales calls into FLA today with Hurricane Irma looming on the horizon.  

That's a good point about the time horizon.

As long as your ok w/ a 3-7 yr time horizon then syndications can be a great tool to generate tax advantaged cash flow.  

The trinity study back in 1998 is the primary study that ran all the statistical analyses over different time horizons in the market and discovered that withdrawing 4% per year would give you a >95% chance of having sustained income for a 30 year retirement without running out of funds.