You don't generally want to syndicate deals that are 6-7 on a 10-point scale because there is not enough juice in them to pay the investors and yourself.

They scale better than partners;3.

We don't expect to do any of these deals soon, I'm looking to see how this investment structure works in a perfect world, and scale it down from there for our purposes. 

I live in Northern VA and as I try to scale my business and get my @David Greene on (Long Distance Real Estate Investing book) I have to stop this nonsense of driving 3 1/2 hours each way just to inspect the progress on my rehabs.

The economy of scale is superior, one grass to mow, one roof, 4 rents to collect at one location, etc.It is still a residential loan (less than 5 units).  

Part of what I do is to help bring them to a more realistic vision.I've become quite adept at Google Sketchup, which allows me to plan (to scale) what I want to do with an area, and I think these skills could definitely apply to an overall home rehab.

Obviously, all things being equal, cash flow trumps appreciation, but there is a huge sliding scale between the two, and a host of conditions (many of which are personal) that you need to consider in making where the right balance is.

Then again, we are also a large property management company which means we have some economies of scale to rely on when it comes to collecting payments.

Having done both REI and a construction company I can see the relationships, and can also see they are two totally different animals on a large scale ;) Personally, the REI is not my target customer, a waste of my time, there are bigger fish out there I'd rather fry. :) I see my REI business as related, but separate, totally different contracts, legal entity, and business model.

I love the program and have seen a lot of great outcomes, but it's tricky on a small scale.