So, I was thinking allocating 50% of related expenses and that by treating as investment property I could actually get some tax benefits of doing needed renovations.   

I don't do business in NY, therefore I don't know NY law, but in most states that's "Unlicensed Activity" and it's actually a crime.

Jai Koolwal - that zip code isn't all bad, but I would want to see the actual address to give you a better idea.

Remember also that the interest on the loan is taxed at ordinary income rates.So for example lets say you have 100k and were making 8% in the markets - 8k per year and say you are in top bracket, you will pay $1600 in taxes per year or netting 6400.Now lets say you did a loan and were at 5% you are earning $5k per year (actually less because principal is being paid down and some of money goes into essentially a 0% checking account).

My client was actually OK with this, but when we dug further into the inaccuracies we did find there were verbal agreements for parking spaces and pets that were NOT included in the lease agreements.  

Guessing it'll be Buy & Hold Rentals. 

Hi @Ryan Louz if you do choose Philadelphia please do your homework and find someone to bounce questions off of who actually knows the city. 

To you folks that are paying gurus to learn lending, make sure 1) they actually have a formal credit/lending background and 2) make sure they went through at least the last major crash of 2007-2009 and lived to tell about it.

If it turns out to be some mythical pie in the sky projection about what the cap rate might be 5 years from now, and my buyer client [ideal outcome to follow] has to use that to negotiate price down, oh well, guess they shouldn't have misled in their marketing, sucks to be the seller who hired a broker that advertises falsely, guess they should do a better job next time.

In many cases there won't be much/any difference in the quality of work in my experience, BUT I guess for someone who doesn't know what they are paying for that is a much riskier proposition.