SO no longer willing to share deals with banks.Mine was in the high 700s and dropped to low 600s instantly.

@Holly Kaufman and I had clients in Galveston recently purchase a condo to be used as an STR and their first booking request was MTR from a traveling healthcare worker... instant MTR!

Get them on a payday payment plan.

I don't agree that you can instantly or even quickly go from under $600 to over $700 per door in rents, likely not feasible, but if you can get them up to $2600, lower some expenses, and self manage without too much effort, you can break even or have a slight gain monthly, acquire a needed tax deduction (providing additional cash flow), acquire equity through principle reduction, and acquire appreciation from the surrounding improvements going on. if you need is not strictly cash flow, then this could be a decent play for you (of course, there could be much better deals with upside AND cash flow, but I don't know your area or how hard you have looked).

Neither is payday lending, exotic dancing, selling aluminum siding at above-market prices to elderly widows and a whole bunch of other things I would rather not see my kids do.Bottom line, if you depend on deceiving a seller in order to find deals, you are not adding value, you are leaching.

See if you can find one of the last remaining SS or repo units now and you can possibly get in with instant significant equity.

It may be they're just trying to get out of a neighborhood that makes them uncomfortable or it may be they're going for a pay day for of their "pain and suffering" and every future illness that comes their way. 

@Troy Fisher  the generational wealth is tricky one.the mentor I mention took his company public and got a 8 figure pay day when it was bought by a Austalian concern.. he then put 10 million into trust for his two daughters.they get a pretty nice stipend monthly ( they will never have to work) one of them lives a rock star lifestyle with no real cares and some pretty extravagant spending and not really in touch with the common man... the other is very grounded and what I would consider a really good person..

Every time Fannie or Freddie come out with some new restrictive rule, me and folks like me instantly go about finding ways to flow around the rule (water around a rock) without committing fraud.

I do like the instant gratification of 20k/year although less without your depreciation.