Before signing the lease you perform a condition walk thru of the apartment.  

On the other hand, you carry all of the risk from a non-performing unit on the front end, waiting years for rents to appreciate far enough beyond your note to produce cash flow. 

Well, if it isn't multi family you can definitely perform an evaluation without cap rates. 

Buy the ground rent after a title search is performed locating the owner or get a redemption certificate from the State.

- Do you need an in-house leasing agent - Shucks..... a general job description of what an owner would expect a management company to perform would be helpful.  

I planned to hire them to manage additional properties if they performed well with the first.

Often 0 competitors (most of my leads ONLY submit their info to 1 company), no tracking, no figuring out anything, no skip tracing.. it is seriously completely effortless once your site is performing!

The data can be helpful in getting to a shortlist... then you can dig in to the detail of a handful of markets, e.g. check landlord friendliness of the state, research what the employer base looks like in city, skim news headlines for top issues for the area (school performance?

2 - Does the syndicator receive benefit, even if they don't perform? 

Many people you know have IRA's and 401k's that are under performing and would love to lend it out.