Aside from the questions asked, if your main objective is to buy the house to rent it out at a later date, you have to look beyond seeing the property as a comfortable home and see it as an investment and what has the best return on your money.

I have no objection to that, but the problem is timing.First of all, no one can really time the market.

Either way, I congratulate him on his success and respect his decision to get in to real estate.My comments were directed to say that 1) I know of very few good quality syndications that will meet his objectives, and 2) smaller projects, while they might be easier to "get your hands around" take a lot more daily interaction and are less efficient to be able to use quality third party management and professional advisors.With 2 million in equity, he can get non-recourse financing (minimal net worth requirements), and buy a very solid stable B+ or better deal in good solid markets, (maybe not Dallas or Denver) that with good management and some good advisors, he can probably be very successful. 

., never being allowed to rent it even after 5 years are up, or only being allowed to rent it to low income people even after 5 years, etc.) and you don't want to be at the closing table (or later) and find something you object to.Free money is great, but you may find (as I've found) that it usually comes with some pretty specific conditions.

Not to mention when you're vetting deals the 20 unit property has probably been professionally managed so you have a better chance of getting a genuine/objective T12.There are advantages to 4-plexes but it seems like you're leaning that way so I'll still with the "devils advocate" for larger unit complexes. 

This way your end buyer investor will see exactly what you're pulling for comps, can go over them and show you what their objections are.  

There are a lot of parameters, but either the property fits your objectives or it doesn't.

"There is no objection to the use of the HUD - 1 in transaction in which its use is not legally required." http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?

You might need to explain your investment objectives to them.

So you might find it tough to gain traction in investing with what you have to deal with in overcoming her objections.