I bought my place after the last financial meltdown, so I have plenty of equity to cash flow my house as a rental and I thought about it last year, or an equity split with a friend to get him into being a home owner; but then you have to look at Cash on Equity instead of just cash on cash returns as I have heard David Greene talk about before (just looked it up to make sure and it is in his book http://biggerpockets.com/longdistancebook).I found a facebook video of David talking about the long distance thing, which you have probably heard on the podcasts (probably won't be able to post the link to fb: https://www.facebook.com/BiggerPockets/videos/newest-biggerpockets-author-david-greene-talking-long-distance-real-estate-inves/10155417628854833/)

In the end, choosing a lender that is a little more realistic is the point I was getting at. 

Are there other reasons to choose one method over the other? 

You have time to watch handyman videos and to paint, and time to build up savings for the next.  

Which brokerage are you with and why did you choose them?

@Robert Soto we didn't have much to choose from and are definitely fortunate!

It does not make you responsible for payments nor does it relieve them of the responsibility of making payments, but it allows you to make payments if you choose to.5.

You get to choose.

If you assume the property value continues to climb at a consistent 7.14% and you remain cash flow neutral... then your return on investment is only 7.14% per year (assuming you can sell when you choose to). 

I was actually planning on doing it via video conference, but in person would be cool too.