Larger college towns (Boston, DC) offer great marketability to college students, which offers great potential - Consider this: College students (I know from experience) are not concerned about price, as long as the money is there to pay for it, ie. scholarship money, parents money, student loans.

-Yao offered me 10% of the profits -Yao's realtor already has the place listed for $350k, and they've had multiple offers, but they're withholding that information from the bank.

One other drawback that you must consider with holding a performing note is that if you are for example holding a note on 40K at 8%, what happens to this income stream if the rate of inflation goes up?

Agreed, as long as it's limited to those whose parents can't afford it.

My parents just cleared their attic of mice in a home they built years ago, and my mother is a cleanaholic.

Are any of the parents doing things differently with their kids or grandkids if the education in the US is so bad?

My middle son started out there this year and my wife and I were out there last weekend for Parents weekend.

People have more in their paycheck and they spend it, but then the income tax bill comes due and they don't have the money - it was spent rather than being sent to IRS via withholding.

Proper protections starts with holding your properties in LLCs.

My parents (60 and about to retire) are not interested in doing the PM work, so I'd have to hire a company, but my dad would help with minor maintenance.