The home was purchased at a deep discount since it was a deal within the family.

This is a very fundamental principle of real estate deals and there is a lot to learn after 6 deals.This is coming from someone that had the same opinion that realtors were not adding much to my deals, and were actually slowing deals down with slow communication and lack of nerve for nonconventional offers and situations.  

The answer I would predict you will get most unanimously on here would be that the high maintenance/hoa fees and the slow appreciation of condos make investing in them a bad (or at least risky) idea.

Together we have discovered that we both had a deep desire to be in real estate and we finally just took the step and launched our company, Price Point Investments, on Jan 1st.

Read rich dad poor dad...but I am not that kind of risk taker...so I did it "my way".I don't do much deals in my slow ten years... but each are different, for education purposes.Condo...new construction...retail commercial complex... free standing retail commercialBuying...renting...selling...options.....contingencyI learn along the way.But a road map is better than just chugging a long in my opinionKey is not be the smartest tool in the shed...surround yourself with knowledgeable ppl

I’m not sure about the larger builders, my guess is that the execs have an LLC that is an “investor”.The ones I’ve seen do it usually have a few deep pocket investor friends who can regularly close smoothly on them without the need for a lender or appraisal.The down side (where I live) is that profitably selling a recently completed home in an area of active new construction can be tough the first few years.  

Interest rates are low, but if we run into any strange regulations that limit buyers' ability to get loans, things will slow down.

Promising one lessee rather than 4-5 non or slow paying ones.Going in and cleaning house, creating cashflow, and after 1-2 years, executing on the option and either taking the property subject to or having the seller carryback.Am I living in naive bizzaro-land or have any of you been able to structure a deal like this.Brian, are you listening?

The market slowed for me for a while so I place my RE license on inactive.

best of luck to you,,,hopefully you will realize that hard money lenders and private money are just about the same thing,,,unless you have a relative with deep pockets, then you have lots of options,,,most people want a good return for having so much money on the line