This way, you do not have to marry (which is equity/LLC) before you date (set return).In the future, after this deal, if you guys work together seamlessly, then maybe create a new LLC. 

A few years ago I helped my (retired) parents buy their most recent house by directly giving them a $100k cash down payment, and they would like to leave the house to me when they pass in thanks for the assistance (it ended up helping keep their mortgage extremely low since they are on a fixed income).They are very worried that it will somehow get caught up in probate or red tape when they pass even if my name is spelled out in the will, and wanted to see about just adding me to the title or something so that there is a seamless transition without any hassle.

My area has seen two major pullbacks in real estate prices - the late 80s and 2008-2011, that were 13% and 22% (blended across the region), respectively.

@Robert Davis IIIOut of state is a great thing, if you live in California :-)It is defiantly doable, I know many people who have their entire RE portfolio out of state or out of country...Now , with all that said , if this is your first RE investment then for sure you have to visit the area, and get the local insight, plan your trip ahead and have everything lined up:Several "potential" properties that you would consider investing in, tour them real good and grade them for yourself ..When you visit these subject properties make sure to blend in as much as possible with locals , neighbors, mail man and everyone in town that will be happy to discuss and contribute REAL local insight ... at this point I would not take advice from anyone that is talking from position...

The way I see it, unless they start tracing your IP address to your computer's location and triangulating that way, OR AirBNB starts forcing you to provide a unique identifier like a SS# to open a new account and then somehow verifying it (You can still have friends and family have accounts this way) and using a blend of strategies to make sure you aren't gaming the system, it will be very hard for them to enforce this for those who are motivated to get around it...

Is "standing out" or "blending in" better? 

This a blend of a few things I’ve been told and learned in classes.

You could also blend the two strategies.

They didn't blend any of those numbers.

This would give you a great tool for your balance sheet as well as help with other accounting issues, and Is much faster.Personally, I think the best thing is a blend of Quickbooks and other “custom” reports.