Today, you aren't making an 18% return.

Basically you aren't selling to family.

From a practicality stand-point, using a local lender who is a known quantity in the area can help strengthen your offers in a still competitive market.

., hard money lending, litigation settlement funds, etc.) might hold up better in a downturn and aren't correlated with the RE market. 

Simple answer to this question is NO, there aren't many similarities between multifamily and single family calculationsAsk the broker for the last 12 months of profit and loss statements along with the current rent roll.  

@Richard Rice they aren’t suppose to come unannounced.

If you can qualify the payments aren’t much higher for a $200-$250k house. 

Usually the contracts aren't forever (at least in my market), so it's not a deal breaker if you bought with them, and wanted to replace after X months or even a year or more.

@Bob Malecki I’m guessing these aren't FHA insured, or they wouldn’t be selling them?  

BTW there are areas of the valley that aren't miles of beige stucco!