But they're cool and groovy so the fat cats gotta have them. 

Hello Chris Wolfe, In Brazil we would say, "Your crying with a full belly."

If they send a "home run" deal out to a hundred investors or so then more than likely the emotional bidding will strip out all the fat off the bone with the only folks making money are the lender and contractors.  

And then after the first couple of months the business goes belly up.

Keep looking, but only swing at a fat pitch.

@Jon Schwartz1) To begin with 3 million FMV in California captures innumerable small business owners standing entirely on its own, but if that weren't bad enough, the valuation standard is actually aggregated across all properties owned so it's not in fact in excess of 3 million per property making it much worse still.2) Commercial properties have a very suspiciously expansive scope in the initiative (the devil is in the details, as is typical, and here as well) thus capturing both mom and pop businesses and in many cases even agriculture.3) Unsurprisingly those proffering the provision have acknowledged it is but a first step, once they get their foot in the door with passage of the initiative they will shoot for full repeal of Prop 13 targeting all real estate owners.4) But you make a really great point, sell it as tax on fat cats (while in reality it's scope will hit many many small businesses) makes it palatable to a largely uninformed electorate and further softens them up for delivery of the really big hammer when they shoot for full repeal of Prop 13.

I'm a fan of using leverage and using it rather aggresively, but there are reasons many investors went belly up in 2008.

So this is a longer topic but let me give my quick thoughts on 'fat' and overhead in a property management setup:You absolutely need property managers and maintenance.  

I am headed for fat FI, so I can do everything I want.

By limiting middle fat.