Purchase price: $133,000 Sale price: $315,000This was a combination of strategies, but ultimately a successful flip.

From personal experience, outdoor entertainment areas, modern kitchens, and even beach gear can make a huge difference.

Honestly the high fees combined with lack of transparency and high appraisal costs, a whole month of UW (longer than normal), etc. would make me want to switch lenders right away because IME the lenders with high fees and high appraisal costs who drag their feet like this also tend to be the ones to continue delaying, have things get stuck in underwriting, say one thing while delivering another, have poor communication especially between UW and origination, bad customer service, can't close when they say they will, etc. and it can be a total nightmare. 

With the lower LTVs offered by senior lenders these days, it may be tempting to look at preferred equity and it may make sense since technically it is cheaper than LP equity, but also keep in mind they have a higher liquidation preference (obviously) but will often want all the cashflow (or a majority of it) to come to them before the LP investors and will also want large reserves, so make sure you model out the cashflows and understand the end-to-end deal with the preferred equity investors.We have some institutional investors with whom we did a combination of a pref and JV deal and it worked quite well for everyone including them and the LP investors.

A combination of mortgage notes for cash flow and desirable properties in high appreciation areas (not cheap, undesirable properties in the Midwest.)

I would recommend a combination of a house-hack and an investment property depending on your current cash position, short-term and long-term goals. 

If he has tons of time on his hands and wants to get his hands dirty, flipping could be an option as well, with a combination of his money + private money. 

When an entity is structured correctly you’ll be able to qualify for deep tax deductions against your w2 income through the business combination structure ( A structure that qualifies an individual for deep tax deductions) 

The modern features and amenities can attract renters, and energy-efficient designs might help keep utility bills down.

Or a combination of both. 4 months on the market and lowering it to $1700 tells me that you might have a dump AND/OR your comps are WAY off.