I'm wondering if we can use gift of equity as a "down-payment" or to reduce to LTV to at least 80%.

I have never sat down and calculated a hard percentage, but I would say I'm right around 50%.The returns I'm earning from real estate are far greater than anything in the stock market.

Oftentimes they are offering a reduced rent in exchange for you to do the repairs, I haven't seen as much mention of the security deposit reductions as in the ad you found.

So, I ALWAYS seek additional counsel when it comes to investigating any strategy that will make me money or will allow me to KEEP more of my hard-earned money.

It will reduce the life of the new shingles and make it difficult to locate leaks for the most part.

Assessed value has nothing to do with market value or what you should pay.You are buying this property based off the income approach as an investment but generally single family properties use the comparable sales approach for valuation,lending,and appraisal purposes.Local recent sold comps would be a better gauge for current market value than looking at any assessment value.Now you do want to look at assessed value for property taxes.Fighting the property taxes and getting them reduced will improve your yearly bottom line.Make sure the cash flow of the property they are reporting does not include exemptions that do not apply to you or they have been putting off capital costs and maintenance to show and INFLATED NOI.

Reo Broker just emailed me that his SFR listing in 90043 just fell out of escrow because buyer couldn't secure loan. 4Bed/3bath 1800+ square feet just reduced to $290k.

That is how you protect yourself.I assume also that those in the Fund, the subscribers, are aware of the dilution of their earnings due to additional participation of the principals?

Month later, it's been reduced to 49,900...

Early retirees (65-75), high earning pre-retirees (55-65), middle age accumulators (45-55), groups where safety and liquidity have varying degrees of importance.Thanks.