I called my Merchant account and it was like pulling teeth...No one was driving the speed I needed to drive and apprantly they had no where to go...Seemed like every time I typed a letter another appeared instead.

The LOI I'm familiar with, but often times a Seller won't want to divulge any possibly sensitive financial info, even with a LOI if a prospective buyer hasn't even seen the property either.

This allows me to get extra time when comes to sensitive questions so I could think over w/ my clear mind without being emotional at spot. 

Unless your rental agreement clarifies this and has teeth, good luck.

This is a little time sensitive, so I can’t do the usual out and socialize/network thing.

Lending attorneys can be as rare as hen’s teeth, and you’ll likely hear the same few names over and over.Your friend should meet with this attorney as his or her client.

I think communities going through changes like this are going to have growing pains, and I want to be sensitive to my outsider perspective. 

I think you are dead on point to look east, but you may not have to go much past east bay or even Central Valley to find something that pencils out (and possibly less oil price sensitive)..

Many operators also prefer to work with accredited because of the presumption of inexperience with non-accredited investors.Cut your teeth on the portals and perhaps you can form relationships whereby you can invest in their next offering directly.Hope that helps!

@Anthony Wick....yeah I've never had units in weather sensitive areas, so I'll defer to those with the experience of dealing with that part..... so if no one moves in winter, then in general turnover should be very small in those months whether you have a long lease or M2M I guess it protects for rare occurrence when people do move during those months and you struggle to find someone to move in....totally understand wanting to do that....I get it...... but if you cant rent it back out quickly and will never see the $$ from the previous tenant, then its a false sense of security....sounds great IF you can get the $$ from the previous tenant....but that's a huge IF to me.....If you have a longer lease and start working hard to fill it as soon as you get notice that they will terminate early.....and usually get it rented quickly...and the old tenant isn't getting stuck with paying for vacancy in most cases....then its really not any different than having a M2M.