Prices may have gone down during the financial crisis, but the market was still hot and competitive.

Airbnb competition is quite stiff in Denver, which keeps the rent down.Our current strategy is to use the Airbnb platform to find roommates staying 30+ days, which means we don't have the hassles of licensing and paying the STR tax.  

Brians inventory in CA can and will go retail so he can have a organized sale campaign to maximize.I am going through this right now personally with the last 11 rentals ( new construction I bought for Go zone in MS)  what we forget even though the homes were bought brand new 10 years ago.. they have now been in service for 10 years... so they need a retail rehab.. usually 5 to 10k to get them up to what your competition is selling homes for ( especially in this area).then of course its near impossible to sell a home with a renter in it.. so you need to boot the renter now you have no cash flow.. you sink 5 to 10 k into the home you have negative cash flow say 1k per month for 6 months  add on sales commish and closing costs of another 6 to 7k and there you go. you need 20 to 25k in CASH to exit.. and if your in a market were the properties have not really appreciated.. then your just giving back your positive cash flow you made for 10 years..

The competition is certainly stiff in this area of town (really - it's competitive throughout Kent County as a whole!

There is a lot of competition, However, it can be done and you will need to get pretty creative.

So maybe to be competitive you would need to go lower...

I know this market is very very competitive and also expensive.

." :) Let's set aside the 'don't mix business with friendship' advice for now and focus on how we'd theoretically finance that purchase.Does anyone know any way to fractionalize a mortgage?

Competition is fierce on bigger deals and I'm sitting here with a long time horizon hoping to get into bigger deals but wont do it at the expense of tighter numbers.  

There are plenty of renters or tenant buyers with little to no competition on the buying side.- it's always good to see another Hoosier utilizing this great site!