Or rent out, refinance , and recoup money else where knowing what I know now .

So I throw them a bone and take money off rent for them to work on them over time.

For example, if you have a 30-year mortgage and you make one extra principal payment a year, It will take roughly 7-8 years off your mortgage.

What @JDmartin said.......You'll lose money unless you hire a good GC.

To finance the deal, I'm thinking of using hard money and heloc from 1 of my properties.

There is still money to be had and a lot of opportunity but just make sure your location is good.

I would be putting 20-25% down and use a loan to get more for my money. 

We have a relationship with a much larger developer who does multifamily, mostly apartments, and even they can't figure out where to put their money right now, because the math just aint mathing for them to build or renovate at the moment.

I was intrigued by the fact that you don't need a lot of money upfront to get in.

You can even get better with CDs and money market with no risk.