Seems like an artificial way to make a market and create money. 

It is introducing cheap money into the market that will artificially drive up housing costs.  

The life estate could also be seen as an artificial limitation to your investment activity. 

@Thomas D. if I understand correctly, you and your uncle are going to form a conspiracy to falsely inflate the value of your properties for the purpose of taking loans from a bank in amounts larger that would be allowed if not for the artificial inflation.  

Why, because people need their medicine or something else to solve their problem.

You and I are on the same page about the effects of increasing rates (they couldn’t stay so artificially low for so long without consequnces) and the benefits of the tax billI asked you if you had any data or could at least point to any tangible signs of the Bay Area market taking a “hard hit” (your words) any time soon. 

If you feel like you have to force/fudge data to make it sound good to a lender, then your project may not be profitable.Take your medicine.

My suggestion is going with ether pavers or artificial turf. 

@Bill S. makes some great points -- if it was just about the numbers then we'd all invest in artificial intelligence and analytics and have a bot decide what properties to buy.My thought: I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but you can increase CoC by investing in the property.

She can practice traditional and non-traditional medicine.