From an equity build approach, seems taking on the 18 by itself is almost more of a gamble, no?

I have little different approach.

Your personal guarantee of that debt instrument in a transaction where the IRA has involvement would be very risky.Our firm's approach to such JV transactions is one of caution.  

Both properties were the result of direct mail campaigns, so this approach definitely works for small multifamily.Go to Listsource.com or another list vendor and build your list with your desired property criteria, then either do your own letters, or use a site like yellowletters.com to handle your mail campaigns.

I figured if it cost me a day and 200 bucks and I was making 5k commish.. it would be a fun day.. and clients were impressed to beat the band that I would do that.although careful with this approach..

That sort of implies a one size fits all loans approach to disposition and nothing could be further from the truth.  

Is there a common approach to 

I am unfamiliar with this approach and its benefits/drawbacks.Thanks very much

I am a disabled Army Veteran and see how if I can learn this and provide a step by step approach in success I can see sharing this within my Veteran community.

Have any of you owned an older commercial property and been approached by a developer looking to purchase it for re-development?