@Jose Jose, glad to hear you're thinking about this- water savings are an amazing way to increase your return.

Syndications are a way for folks to earn very attractive returns in an asset class like large apts that are hard to gain access to w/o experience, capital and connections.  

Its not as important what it costs over the life of the loan, whats important is the return on your 5% down and that its has a positive cashflow.

So let me decipher this, if i understand this, you have someone that wants to be an onsite manager but in return he wants some income, low rent on his apartment along with utilities and cable included ?

In my opinion, Ohio has the best returns and is definitely advantageous for newbies looking to get their foot in the door.

If I am able to bring down both or either price to below market value (but less than 20% below) , is it worth going into contract with if an investor won't make a large return?

The long term plan would be to move out again after I'm employed and purchase a home and return this property to a rental.  

The more of those you have to invest for a higher return, the faster you will succeed.  

So, after we moved out of a rental property over a year ago, the owner, who lives in another state was not able to return to and re-rent the property.

I'd love to chat more to get a better idea of what you are looking for (type of neighborhood, assets available, timeline, desired return..) as well as what why you are investing (buy/hold short or long term or rehab/flip).