They are exceedingly rare, thus very expensive, but I believe they represent an excellent long term steady income and store of value.  

I did not come back to revisit this post from so long ago.I did not buy this property. 

I've been in the BP community for over 10 years, I've been featured on the podcast 6 different times, RTR has over 270 5 star reviews, and yes, I've been a long time sponsor of BP as well. 

I have an opportunity to make a quick 30k in equity, but only cash flow around $25 — if I look at long term appreciation, that seems to make sense to me, but am I overlooking something and trying to make this work?

We live in San Diego so would be long-distance, TBD if we self-manage or enlist a PM. 

I am looking into my STR options but from what I have learned this is a overflowing market in the area and the vacancy's are increasing so I may look into mid term and long term only.

@John R Bongiovanni Aside from those services, I have done a lower security deposit in exchange for a higher rent on a long term tenant and they were fine with that.

Looking to invest in long term hold multifamily.

It can still qualify if it's a fixer-upper, as long as the rental income from the property can cover the debt service.

Of course, if we have another available unit that's similar to the one they were looking at, I'll pivot to that and offer to move their current application over to that unit as long as they would still qualify under whatever the new unit's rent is.