- and having Grandma own shares equivalent to her investment, or some similar strategy.Never speculate!

Meaning they speculate and capture some short term appreciate of 6 months to a year and then do their flip.

Personally I don't like to speculate so I go for higher cash flow properties.  

That is speculating.- Trying to time a bottom of a market simply does not work.

What do you want to do with it, buy and hold, a flip, speculate for a shopping center?

In terms of which to go with I think some pros for condos is lower cost of capital as a barrier to entry, lower cost means lower risk on your first deal, most condos include heat and hot water with the fee and that results in a less complex assignment to you as the property manager (assuming you will manage your own), I think condos fell hard and fast in the crisis and are an asset that may outperform early in this recovery (my speculation).Cons - condo fees destroy cash flow in my opinion, when I run numbers on condos those fees just kill the returns, HOAs and condo associations generally stink, there are adjustments where they can hit you up out of the blue for stuff like a new roof, that's a risk that could kill years of earnings out of nowhere.

Hard money lending is also an option if you can limit the hold period, your cash flow can help you pay it back quickly.I can only speculate what you're trying to do to be able to generate $20k on a SFR, but just be careful because San Francisco is not a friendly to landlords and investors.

I am going to completely ignore any split with their brokers to keep things simple.I am sure most will just speculate like I am, but maybe someone on here knows them personally and knows the inner workings of the deal.Thanks!

Started speculating in vacant land.

@Blake DaileyI actually don't understand all the speculation as to circumstances on this question.