I was soooo obsessed with the gator method and basically for me it was the shiny object syndrome I guess, I went from so obsessed to just completely lost interest in it.

One year.It was completely empty when I bought it. 

In the past two years we have completed over a dozen flips, We are holding 20 rental units self managed and 2 self managed Air BnBs.

Still can be very beneficial for a new investor but personally I think not as good as a service as they had with their exclusive listings where they had inspections already done, rent rolls available, and you can complete the entire offer/acceptance via their platform rather than being handed off to an agent. 

I have 2 options:- finance the construction pre-selling the apt, and take my profits (expected to be around 700K pre-tax); or- finance the construction with a 6-7%/year loan (collateral = my house), keep the 10 units, and once the building is completed in 24 months, rent them for circa 180K/ year gross.

Once complete, refinance into a low or no seasoning DSCR loan.

Once you start learning how to identify a good deal financially you also need to make sure the property is not in a really crappy depreciating area or that the building is completely falling apart structurally.Hope this helps.

This will still qualify for a residential mortgage and you have a better shot of completely offsetting your entire payment.

Yes, as I'm doing more research, I'm finding that I would prefer to invest in markets that I know personally, so as not to rely on external variables completely.

Many of the development projects here in Detroit, even projects in areas like Corktown, Wayne State, West Village, all see their share of incentives to complete the capital stack.