In calculating ROI, these criteria seem to be the sweet spot for us (balance of cash flow and appreciation):4% yearly appreciation on average for the next several years.  

BTW, if your house is the one I think it is, it's pretty sweet.

His compensation will come in the form of profit-sharing.It sounds like a pretty sweet deal....My question to those of you who are experienced with these forms of creative financing is this:Assuming I can avoid buying bad properties and assuming the lawyer competently covers the legal bases, are there any risks to this strategy not captured above?

I will say that I've been working with her for years so she knows how I like my properties kept up and what will likely fit into my sweet spot. 

Personally, my area's sweet spot is with 150k to 160k houses that I can get all in at 110k so I have very little out of pocket (5k to 10k tops) and can have a gross profit of 400/mo or more.

Could cut your costs in half, keep you near civilization/family, and in the end you still have a sweet RV for future use. 

It could also be a pitbull, which can be a very sweet animal if trained properly. 

So, you need to offer them a sweet deal that is better than them just waiting until next summer to sell it and possibly get more money for it in a hot market - I'm assuming the market in Portland is normally hot. 

He started saying he'd sue, while he stopped the logging crew, but I (after first trying crying to get him to be nice to me) reminded him there was no timber clause in our contract - and - that I was going to use the money from selling the trees to put in a well, and if I defaulted on the loan, the property would be worth a lot more with a well on it than with the trees still on it.He ended up leaving me alone, I put in the well, the trees that were cut down gave the lot a lot more sunlight which was great, and I sold it at a sweet profit to the guy who put in the septic system for me. 

I think these states are less sweet for buy and hold landlords, because they are tenant friendly states.