If you have a large down payment (or the ability to cover negative cashflow), the East Bay's appreciation and principal pay-down benefits have been historically very strong compared to other markets.  

So if you are just trying to protect your principal, probably not a bad place to buy. 

In our previous example of $4k net monthly income the disbursement would be as follows: $4,000 Net income$1388 principal loan repayment to majority partner $1305 (50% of $2612) to majority partner$652 (25% of $1305) to each minority partnerAs your parents, they might not require or care about the same rate of return, or a return at all (except the equity position) especially if they're planning on utilizing the property for personal time.

From CSLB:This section defines what an owner-builder is and the laws surrounding the practice.An owner-builder is what the term indicates: a person owns the property and acts as their own general contractor on the job, and either does the work themselves or has employees (or subcontractors) working on the project.The work site must be their principal place of residence that they have occupied for 12 months prior to completion of the work.The homeowner cannot construct and then sell more than two structures during any three-year period.Getting a GC license and going Legit is pretty difficult.

But meanwhile your loan principal got paid down, you had tax write offs and maybe even did some remodeling.Would you have been better off renting from 2007 to 2015?

Also, as principal for those apartments, would that mean you are managing and watching over them?

If you plan to pay down quickly, splitting into two loans makes more sense because you can attack the more expensive loan with the extra principal payments and rapidly change the weightings, reducing the blended rate with each payment (fyi - most investment property 2nd liens will have prepay penalties).

There 4 types of income from real estate, appreciation, cashflow flow, principal pay down and tax write offs.

As others have mentioned, 100K in some markets is doable but in most coastal, appreciation markets, it will not be sufficient to lend in a safe manner, i.e. with a large equity buffer to protect your principal investment.

I'm assuming principal is not written in the loss category even though it goes against your cashflow.