If we bite off people’s heads when they admit disaster, it suppresses legitimate issues with these techniques.Just for context there is a lot of history with the OP and some of us on here going back years (like the thread I linked to above from about a year ago and several others if you use the search function with his name) with him minimizing the risks of how he was structuring these transactions and some of us being cautionary, warning him that exactly what happened here could happen, which made him defensive and dismissive. 

Higher property taxes compound the expense for buyers, making affordability harder to achieve.

It grows so much faster and that early growth compounds over time, so having a little more invested early on is worth more than a ton invested later.There is a metric called cash on equity return.

Your ROI needs to be much higher the older you get started because of the loss of the magic of compounding. 

Additionally, don’t overlook the opportunity cost of pulling money from your 401k—those funds could have been compounding in the market.I’d also suggest stress testing your ROI by running scenarios with higher expenses or lower rents to see how resilient the investment is.

Contractually, I'm sure I'll be on the hook for something based on their PM favored literature, but can I contest that they have done absolutely nothing for me, including not paying me as my defense?

That information and expertise also compounds over time.It's easy to be envious of investors in other markets that have seen massive spikes in appreciation, but we only see that in hindsight. 

Available but not on demand.The Lowballer: Initially quotes a very low price but may later demand significant cost overruns.Be wary of contractors who become defensive when you ask detailed questions.Happy hunting!

Defense was just something like I just wanted to buy a part of San Francisco for cheap, I wasn't planning to do anything sinister.   

And seems people get very defensive if speak to such.