Essentially, find a property that can cashflow with a renter as well as have the opportunity for some value adding.

You're, essentially, putting 15% down, and they are lending the rest.

When these homes are rented to students, the property managers are charging each student essentially the cost for a 1bd 1ba apartment for a single bedroom.

  (5) I now stick to growth markets like SF/Marin County, Las Vegas and college towns where you essentially have endless demand (with parent guarantors).   

This accomplishes essentially the same thing as inline fan Jim was talking about above, but it's not as discreet.

Essentially you “bet the company” based on your assumptions being right, because you only have one shot to make it pay, and ultimately the amount of “unknown data” is equal to the risk you take.

I am considering purchasing the rental we have lived in for the last few years. In order to save on realtor fees, the owner is willing to knock off the 6% realtor fees from the appraisal price. Are there any advantage...

You are essentially creating your own sweat equity in the home.  

And if so, essentially pulling out prior to six months (even when including rehab costs) means you’ll only get back a max of 70-80% of your initial incestment.  

Essentially I bought a foreclosed duplex property for 270k, and wrapped the 80k rehab into the 203k loan so my total loan amount was $350kAfter I rehabbed it, it reappraised for $500k, so I had enough equity to refinance out into a conventional loan.