Bottom line, if you're an agent, don't show houses without an agreement, and ask your buyers if they have worked with anyone else to avoid confusion.

This would help to avoid the unequal partnership percentage, by basing it entirely on your contributions.

The cost is built in somewhere to what they are doing.We get landlords offering free rent here for 1 year.The rent isn't free on commercial as they then have year 2 at a higher than normal rate to recover some of the lost rent and then built in escalations that are higher and more frequent than normal.Never get sucked in by a gimmick.I tell all my clients to be slow and methodical in doing a deal to avoid "knee jerk" reactions.It takes a long time to make money and a small amount of time to lose it.You also have to watch out for if they are in pre-foreclosure or not.They could be trying to collect an upfront payment with free rent and then walk.

Avoid needing to refer to business plan.

Maybe the easiset way would be to divide the lot and build on it then move in it for the 2 years avoiding capital gains on the lot.

We avoid this in Riverside by not playing in the MLS, but if you are going to play in the MLS, remember that you need to tailor your offer to the property to maximize results.

Also there's closing costs. correct me if I'm wrong but can't you refinance with a HELOC in 6 months and avoid most closing costs?

It might be a good idea to have some units that are slightly out of that range to avoid direct competition.

They all will decrease the probability of the risk wished to avoid but with a negatively increasing yield.

Interesting article.Personally, I'd steer clear of any sort of funding - there are enough places in Europe (for the gamblers) or Asia (for the growth-oriented) to be able to avoid any sort of debt.