Be sure you understand the annual filing procedures wherever you create an LLC.

A lease with option to purchase at a specified price is solid.

My friend understands he needs to fix few problems. 

As I understand it the PMI Franchise is rolling this out to all of there offices.

You would need to understand that pretty well to play (safely) in this space.

With that said, I'm doing MTR as well and if you haven't come across it yet, Furnished Finder has a great tool for understanding comps in your chosen area: https://www.furnishedfinder.com/stats

It fits within our buy right criteriaWe own 12 units right next door.Newer vintageThe three beds are in high demand, and we are blowing away the 1% ruleThere is very little cap exWe focus on PPU (profit per unit), and this is going to profit nicely and add to our scale in that part of the marketExit strategy is to refinance our capital out when rates drop, and to hold long term.You have to be willing to take what the defense gives you, and you have to understand all of the investing strategies and know when to use them2021 and 2022, we only did about 200 units, smaller deals, but very profitable and we’ve refinanced all of our capital.2023 was an excellent year. 128 units, 105 units, and 97 units.If you aren’t doing deals, you can always be improving operations, meeting more potential investors, and creating more relationships.Life is like real estate.

I have a friend who’s a photographer so I’m 100% willing to invest in a solid listing.

I also understand that the real money will be made on the 3rd, 4th, 5th+ deals, so my primary concern is getting started, getting experience, and making a little cash on my first investment.My initial strategy was to purchase a light value-add dup/tri/quad that is selling at a discount per key to FMV ideally with rents below market.

You just need to really make sure you understand and are cognizant of all the features of a floating rate loan - often times the structure can be complicated and you don't want to miss something, especially related to any "caps" - just make sure you are better safe than sorry