In terms of risk/reward if you refinance with 12-18 months your worst case scenario is breaking even vs the 30yr fixed.Im a student of this industry and I'm not seeing how rates dont drop significantly with in 12 months. 

They moved out two months after I owned it and it was just as well because they would have been evicted.If you do adequate due diligence, buying an occupied property can be rewarding.

New construction can be stressful but also rewarding.  

<- An example of what i would like to accomplish in real estate after having enough for my family is to have awards/rewards every year like a free home or free reno for the team members like contractors who work with me.

This is just from a risk/reward/passive income comparison.

What I still haven't figure out yet:- What holding period length is the minimum in order to reap the rewards?  

It seems like a lot of work, but it is rewarded by a great level of satisfaction when it comes through.

Seattle is a tough but rewarding market.

George,I specialize in listing and selling apartments for my clients.What I posted was a down and dirty 10 second calculation.Typically costs average to 10% property management15% vacancy/loss turnover35% operating and expenses= 50%This doesn't include deferred CAPEX that the seller has put off to make their costs seem lower and profit seem higher.Buying acquisitions is a process through which you put a filter.When I was working with developers they would plot out about 10 locations on a map.I would pull the preliminary information and we would go visit the sites.From that step half of the properties would be crossed off for one reason or another.Eventually after multiple steps we would negotiate with 2 to 3 sites max.The developer would go with 1 site and maybe 2 if they could get both at great deals.The higher the dollar value on a deal the more scrutiny goes into it.Buying a quad versus a 200 unit apartment building has a totally different level of risk versus reward ratio.When buying a building you have to know in the immediate area how much vintage product you are competing against,versus relatively new product,versus new product slated for development where the plans and land is already bought and the developer is waiting to build to time the market.All of these factors among many others will affect the property you are contemplating purchasing.It doesn't make sense on the front end to do a 100 point checklist of due diligence when the seller might not even sell at a range where it would make sense.Do the down and dirty 10 second calculation and determine the sellers motivation and go from there.I know people who would spend hours trying to analyze a property only to find out from a quick phone call that the seller was unrealistic.Instead of wasting that time they could have found a motivated seller to conduct due diligence on with a deal that might happen.That's not to say the unmotivated seller will not be motivated at some point but you can't wait on that with your other plans.When they come back to you if all your capital isn't ties up you can look at it again.

It's a risk reward decision.