And I know it is a stretch coming onto a forum (trust me, we are looking everywhere and trying everything) but we are looking for any potential equity partners in the Long Island area that would want to go in with us on a few projects that we already have lined up.

Also, pay more and stretch to get into a better area.

There's no AVG size loan but anything below $50,000 is a no, and that's stretching it.

I know, you are saying "no problem, I'll just build a team and they will take care of it all" ... but it is a problem ... best case, building such a team and systems will take YEARS, and those years will NOT be passive by any stretch of the imagination, and even after that outsourcing everything is still expensive.

There are a lot of people stretched to the max right now with loans including student and auto debt aside from their mortgage debt. 

Don't get me wrong, you're going to go through a stretch looking for the right guy (or girl) but when you find them, keep them. 

And that was just to a prospective applicant that wanted to stretch my accepting 1 animal into 2 or 3. 

This can also depend on the number of bedrooms but again will depend on your specific market.If students sign well ahead of the lease start date in your market this can often stretch out the time between the purchase date and when everything is stabilized with the new higher rent rates after rehab.  

Last year they sold units off at $37k and now they are trying to get another $10k out of them which is probably a stretch too.

As far as appreciation is concerned historically you get pretty steady rates in Pittsburgh, but they aren't large rates by any stretch of the imagination.