The beauty of this is that intermediaries who work with me know that I make “fair” offers based on VERIFIABLE facts, that I follow through with completed deals unless important information was with held or information provided was false, and that there’s absolutely no value in presenting deals to me where the seller/borrower/investor is unrealistic, naive, or otherwise wanting to “test” the market.  

I would raise the rent. 

I could raise prices and make operational changes whenever I wanted.

They raised over $300  million in two mortgage REITs, however they didn’t have the deal flow to invest 10% of it.  

Without rent control i either raise their rent far above market rents so they give me notice (my preferred method) or i simply do not renew their lease.

We can use the original part of the house for rental as well, which is valuable to help use understand the STR rental market better, ie what income we actually get as all we have current is the airbnb site itself and airdna (an airbnb analytics site).In short I think the downside is limited, and this deal with give valuable experience while testing my beliefs that it will make me some money!

Northern NJ is not the best place for retirement but it is a great place to raise a family due to the great schools and for those needing easy access to NYC.

I could pony up $25k for the terminal, raise money, educate myself, and make a ton of money investing.

I work with a lot of MTR investors and what I am seeing frequently with multifamily acquisitions, particularly with new investors, is that they often test the property just like you're mentioning, as a way to dip their toes in the water and see what works in their area and for their personal style.

The government then keeps raising taxes to compensate for the shrinking tax base to fund their bloated civil servant pensions.