Sharpening you own skills in this dept will serve you well and save you a ton.

Here are the details:-He owns the lot free and clear (existing single-family house on it with renters)-He hired me to design a 4-unit Apartment Building for him on this lot (new construction)-We got 90% of the way through the Planning approval process, only a few hoops to jump through there to finalize the approval-The Design and Concept for it is Approved and the owners wants to build it, but his financing feel though when his investment partner had to step away-I have no money myself to invest in this, but I do have the skills/ability to finalize the plans needed to pull the building permit.

The 12 year old comment comes from a place of concern for a focus on test score and "grades" instead of social emotional, soft skills, communication and community.

In Cleveland, I suspect there's no shortage of renters so that only leaves price.Look at your competition currently on the market.

I think it would be exploding more, but there's still a serious shortage of inventory. 

You can build from your strengths as you develop new skills and become aware of things to watch out for.Give yourself time and room to make some mistakes.

This is a very profitable way to operate in the context of the Bay Area where there is a severe housing shortage and people have few alternatives.

A friend and I want to learn the skills of buying and rehabbing ourselves.

If your primary goal is equity and you have the time, skills and ability to manage a rehab and have the right people in place to do it, BRRRR could be a good way to go.

Sounds like there is a pretty severe shortage of rentals so you might do better with a good long term tenant in there.