And RE prices have barely begun to adjust. 

Hi BP.I have barely seen any posts here on investing in office buildings. 

General rule of thumb for exterior, is that bare wood can't be showing.

The cons: It was a little rushed, I didn’t shop around for rates,  I refinanced it twice (again not really knowing the process - to chase lower rates) , the community onlyallows one rental ONCE for 12 months - the HOA is a pain (and has a fee for barely nothing) - I think I’m going to be stuck with a special assessment even if I decide to sell and it just isn’t appreacting.

Maybe even diversify and do both.You could fairly easily net your buddy $240,000/yr cash flow on that sum(this is very conservative), show a paper loss on that sum yearly, plus benefit from forced appreciation that will likely outpace the speculative appreciation in most markets; all while barely lifting a finger.Of course you’d no longer be managing that large sum, but I’m sure something could be arranged for your mutual benefit.

The existing tenant pays $575/month and already knows it will be going up (I can't share any further details on that at the moment, but stay tuned and you'll see my diabolical scheme...)I spoke with my brother-in-law who looked for a rental in this area for months, and could barely find any vacancies which is a GREAT sign for me! 

I'm trying to avoid turnkey properties because I want to be able to add value.Me and my wife have been saving up, so we lived at her mom's house for barely anything.

Would have had to offer $260k+ at that point the deal from a return perspective barely made sense. 12% return on a small STR is a no go in my mind.

  ( Our Area of Expertise)  CA OR  WA is this way  very few homes go but thousands of bare parcels go .. and there are many who make a living buying them for cash and then selling them on terms.. thats the whole Land Geek model or any of the other land tax sale gurus model..

I'm showing yearly expenses at around 26400. so am I looking at this wrong in that the units are barely making the payment now and the cap % is awful?