My family and I have finally started to get the gears churning on buying our first investment property and I wanted to see what BP thinks about the equity structure we are debating on between our family members.

Et Al:For agents/brokers running a property management business under 100 doors...it is a financial loss, therefore there is a strong incentive to churn every last dime out of the business (padding estimates etc. is not uncommon).  

If the cash is used for a long term buy and hold it would definitely be better in not all but most cases to use fixed 30 year financing so you can control your "downside," cash flow risk and only focus on the upside which eliminates near 50% of the risk scenario.Heloc's might be a bit lower than a 30 year fixed if the LTV is less than 80 % of your property's market value, but the benefit of the fixed terms far outweighs the volatility and lower variable rate of the HELOC.HELOC can be great if you're doing flips since the capital can be replenished quickly as you can churn your capital in and out multiple times a year and the interest rate risk of a HELOC is not nearly as high when used in this manner.

Right now property management companies have a financial incentive to impose zero tolerance late policies and churn tenants.

Not a mom & pop but a big time company with professional ads, marketing, administrative staff etc....Let them handle all the nonsense and churn that is natural in the construction trades. 

The purpose here is to constantly churn the option money.

Some even will syndicate anything just to keep those upfront fees churning and coming in.You really want the syndicator to have aligned interests with the passive investors where both win.

i understand half of first month's rent...i wouldn't, however, allow a property manager to make that more than once a year...second tenant in the same year= they don't get the half of first month's rent for second tenant..this should hopefully eliminate a manager churning an apartment for more money

It's okay, if it weren't for these types the brokers would have a much harder time churning accounts and notes.My comments are only for those willing to put in effort to learn and make more money, it's not a requirement. :)

So I am creating a comprehensive spreadsheet that I can easily plug basic numbers into, (Will share once complete) including all STR specific expenses, but I have ran into some trouble when putting an equation together to churn out a reliable P&I number.