Also, next economic downturn and you can expect some very serious, very major changes in the TX higher education landscape.

Have a strong lease with open, honest expectations.

making offers on houses and just wondering what the expected return is Cash on cash

For example, if the average occupancy of 1970s built properties in the sub market is 90%, you shouldn’t expect your 1970s built property to sustain 95% unless rents are below market—no matter how good of an operator the syndicator claims to be.

So am I horribly missing something big about loans, or the amount of profit that can be expected?   

If you want to get something at $85 cents on the dollar you'll need to keep doing what you are doing but expect to be waiting a long time if not indefinitely. 

During offer process you are expected to have also reviewed signed all disclosures, reports and documents. 

I expected to put in about $5-8k to update fixtures and some appliances.After the Home Inspection I've got three big concerns going forward: 1) Roof hasn't been touched since late 90s early 2000s.

always get the insurance binder to protect yourself from loss.That's what I would expect from this scenario, but I'm still fairly new to the lending/note space. 

All real estate ownership takes work and time, so expect many new responsibilities to come with “control”