You can still charge a fee for this, because you then have go over there to put the key back and change the combination.

The key is to find a comfortable balance of each. 

The key whether they are worth one dollar or 1 billion is what is their motivation with the property and how can you craft an offer that creates a WIN-WIN to get to a yes where both parties meet their goals?     

The key difference between the two is that IRR requires modeling an exit, and for inexperienced investors, that one major assumption, years in the future, has an outsized impact on IRR, which is less than ideal.

While I do think that there are a lot of reasons to remain cautious and underwrite as if there will be an adverse cycle during the life of any asset acquired today, I think the long bull run in income property has a lot of runway left in a lot of geographical areas.Your family is smart to save some dry powder to take advantage of opportunities, but I suspect that if they are waiting for a reset of pricing and an opportunity to buy at a discount to today's pricing they'll be waiting a while.A key difference between you and your dad is you have a lot more time to make your money back if you get into the market and subsequently get wiped out. 

While I acknowledge that economic strength is just one facet of a good rental market, it is a major factor and I wanted to share what I've found (the details of my methodology and raw data can be found after the various rankings):Top 10 best economiesProvo-Orem, UTSalt Lake City, UTCharlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SCChicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WIDallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TXKansas City, MO-KSLongview, TXLouisville/Jefferson County, KY-INSan Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CABirmingham-Hoover, ALThere were two main factors to overall economic strength that I looked at – how diverse/broad the economy is and how many economic drivers (i.e. strength) the area has.

Have I sacrificed anything up til now trying to figure out MY ENTRY KEY TO THE RE World?

Looks pretty turn key. 

Reviews are key.

Really understand the various submarkets, economic drivers, and path of growth.