I've bought houses for $15K and I've bought houses for nearly $1M -- they were both houses, but that doesn't mean they were equivalent.  

I also understand that I would need to form my company as an LLC or equivalent. 

It's essentially the conventional equivalent of the 203k.

Right now what you are doing is the equivalent of getting on the treadmill, walking for 10 minutes, and then getting off disappointed because you see no progress.Good luck, hang in there, do not hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions.  

But a 2% property with 50% vacancy is equivalent to a 1% property with 100% vacancy.

Looking for a lender that will do a one-time close FHA loan for new construction, the equivalent of a conventional "construction-to-perm" loan. 

I wouldn't have done this in any state and absolutely not in tenant (they were tenants or the equivalent for a day and a half) friendly CA.  

In the MF culture, what is the absolute lowest earnest money that won't be rejected out of hand? There are a number of reasons I want to go this route on a deal... Thanks!

An older building and more management intensive tenants dictates needing a full time PM and a repair person to keep it operating.What you can bake into the numbers for a full time repair person varies on the rents per door collected.Typically you need about 75 units or more for this but for example 1,000 rents per month at 40 doors is equivalent in gross income to 80 doors at 500 a month rent.

If you're taxed at 35% between Fed & State, this equates to $3,500 cash back in your pocket.So would you really be looking at a $1,200-$2,000 annual loss...NO, and the appreciation is your bonus for being patient (at a $300k value and with a low inflation equivalent appreciation of 3% that's another $9,000 the first year).To be honest, I have never heard a California investor say they regretted turning their first primary into a rental.