Fear of getting a bad deal that produces negative cash flow for my first deal would big the biggest thing holding me back. 

If you do seller financing, the end buyer might have chance to do refinancing, then you will be in the middle of trouble.

It may be easier to overcome as an owner occupant, but I have trouble getting a refi on single family homes I have in that price range. 

When I said someone that could produce viable results, I was referring to someone different than the others that just take your money and give you basic stuff you can find on the net.

They produce it every year.http://realestate.wichita.edu/draft/research/Web/F...My 2 cents... it's a stable market and will experience longterm linear appreciation.

Once under contract they have a home inspector produce a property condition report.

Conversely, this means that Property 2 has less risk, which makes it more expensive per dollar of NOI produced.

So for syndications the accelerated depreciation would be offsetting qualified dividends rather than ordinary.But since the distributions form a small fraction of the total gains from the syndication (most of the gains are ltcg), chances are high that accelerated depreciation from the next deal will offset a big chunk of ltcg from the exited deal, irrespective of whether the distributions during the hold period were treated as ordinary or qualified dividends.I agree that most people don’t look at depreciation as a loan/subsidy by the govt, maybe because their ego doesn’t allow them to admit that their investment would not produce competitive yields without subsidies or maybe because they don’t understand the entire value chain. 

Does it produce cash flow?  

You can not fabricate "motivation" when they are NOT motivated to sell.So the next thing to ask to trouble shoot your issue... is...