Any work you can personally do yourself (painting, etc) now is the time to head to the property and put in some sweat equity.

I do send him a bill every month saying the right things but I don't sweat it much. 

If big brother is a good tenet I wouldn’t sweat little brothers background to much.

We purchased a Triplex in Salt Lake City, UT in January of 2017 on an FHA loan, put some sweat equity in it over the course of a year and refinanced out of the FHA to a Conventional loan with with 25% down.

I spend my time, money and "sweat equity" they put in 2 to 10k and the bank finances most of it... but how do I figure out what my time was wWhat my time was worth as a percentage of the value.To make it worse in the example above, a fully-funded property that values at $160,000 with $160,000 of outstanding loans and $4,000 of incidentals on top of that ends up with a startup value of negative $4,000. 

., you don't want to sweat it.As you get closer to Boston appreciation has to enter the equation versus consistent, reliable cash flow.

My "job" is also in the trades so i'm able to eliminate a lot of costs by the sweat equity i can put in to the home from painting, flooring, plumbing, minor electrical, drywall and such.

I also have weeknights, weekends, and sweat equity to learn and grow in the community.  

I would consider talking to a general who will allow you to do "sweat equity".

Being only 21 without a very big business yet, I find a lot of my time spent working on my own projects putting sweat equity into them.