Again, other might feel differently here.b) Skin in the game: as a conservative investor, I understand that the dirty secret of industries that the waterfall compensation is in the line with me and incentivizes sponsors to take more risk.

There’s numbers on a piece of paper that put seller financing in a great light.And then there’s the reality of seller financing being a bet on the buyer managing and maintaining a property well for years or decades while you still have skin in the game.And a bet that the value doesn’t decline by more than the balance of the debt.And a bet that the higher “price” received because of seller financing doesn’t come with opportunity cost in the form of being able to spend or invest the liquidity day 1.And the fact that buyers with seller financing always want better terms than a bank would give them, which is real economics that sellers are far less equipped than banks to estimate risk/reward on.Seller financing is relatively rare.

The seller has an opinion and so do appraisers, but no other skin in the game.

I’d be looking at every flat surface of collection above, all the way to roof.  

The tenant is a deadbeat lying useless waste of skin.

If a contractor has skin in the game, obviously he will go above and beyond to ensure the project is profitable for himself and the investor. 

On the surface, it seems like it meets a lot of broad criteria for being a positive investment, including a positive cash flow at a currently high interest rate, but I don't want to miss on my first step into this.

The person you spoke with may be referencing earnest money deposit (buyer showing the seller they have skin in the game; this can be refundable or non refundable).Some lenders require an application fee (junk fee) and those lenders typically are more expensive to begin with.

@Jacqueline Lee I'll 1 up what @Evan Polaski mentioned....Each jurisdiction and city is going to be slightly different, but at the surface there is generally slightly more paperwork to get your property approved and into the system, but once you get it up and running and the first tenant in there, its generally straight forward to get the rent increases etc.A good place to start would be your local housing authority, they may even offer "Landlord" classes to understand the system more.  

.)- Financial Services (you (owner) should think about what you want the PM to handle, if it is everything from paying bills to insurance procurement to P&L statements then ask that, if you don't want the PM so heavily involved in financials and just more on the surface level of the operations of the property then that is okay too!