When you have a lot of people bidding on the same thing and there's emotions involved, the prices naturally bid up so the appreciation of SFR nets you additional equity over time.   

In my opinion, this matches the nature of investment - there are risks and rewards and investors are meant to weather one and reap the other.

Owning rental property comes with lots of natural risk.

In this example, you wouldn't have any equity...but you'd have the continued cash flow, returned capital when the deal is done and refinanced, and the passive nature.

@Shera Gregory  Please consult with your CPA on a matter of this nature to ensure you get things right for your specific case.  

The historic use is not agriculture in nature, and future use won't be either.

I would not approach it as trying to sell your MLM folks on investing in real estate or vise versa, but talk about what you are doing and let anything that flows out of that come naturally.

Real estate investing is definitely a lot of hard (but rewarding work) and if there is one person doing more of the work than someone else, human nature kicks in and that person will naturally want or feel entitled to a larger slice of the profits.

Combined that with my natural ability to get sh.. done, could I be the catalyst you've been missing in your business. 

And we haven't been able to find financing with the history / nature of our income but we'll keep looking.