Normal unfurnished long term property management is normally 8-12% but MTR is a lot more involved than that.

It's like gambling for them but will want a much higher pref and much higher equity upside from syndicator because of little to no track record.

However every people and every city has its own intricacies, what's normal in area X doesn't mean it's the normal in area Y. 

Then you'pre going to get yourself into trouble.But every once in a while there was just a really nice house that I knew would be a great long term investment and I would break my normal numbers requirements and take it down.

Well actually, I've heard of some situations where bird dogs do actually put it under contract, in this case, the investor usually will pay the bird dog more than he would normally pay him vs if he just 'referred' the property. 

And your gambling a LOT of $ on trying something out, via purchasing a property to try the waters.     

Is this normal?

If not I would do exactly what you were suggesting and just normally invest.

., stolen smoke detectors, fire extinguishers) or cover costs for anything beyond normal wear and tear.

If you have a $20k credit card at 19.99%, use the HELOC to pay that off and then take the money you would normally pay on that credit card debt to cover the rest of the HELOC payment so you can hold the properties.