And please don't respond if you're not going to be helpful or respectful. 

My personal investing goals are almost always different from my client's goals, and at every turning point in a transaction, I do my best to respect that line and not try to inject personal opinions.  

I finally had to hang up on him since he did not respect my attempts to get off the phone respectfully.

Respectfully, since you're a syndicator; you may be a bit bias.

. - not my first choice, unethical, needs cashb) Get to do a 13% or 19% rent increase if rents haven't been increased since May 1977 or May 1976, respectively - I will find out if there are records going this far back in due diligence phase, if offer gets acceptedc) Operate with a loss or very low NOI for 1 year, after that we will be eligible to apply for a Just & Reasonable Rent Adjustment. - with this, we can potentially increase rents by up to 145% depending on a comparison with baseline 1977 level rent amount.I have 2 questions:1) If there exists these 2 other, legal ways to increase rent in a rent controlled area, why does it seems like the only option most investors consider is cash for keys?

Good luck to all of youJennifer, with all due respect, when experienced investors give you advice and you call it "negativity" because it's not what you want to hear.

We bought one is 2020 and one in 2022 for 295k and 375k respectively, both are valued in the 650-725k range-each.

Respect it, take care of it, strengthen it if need be.Your Capital Stake: As much as possible. 

The saturation does give me concern, as it will be hard to make sure the property stands out from others when it is so far away from home without significant time and effort to keep up on theming, not to mention that you are at the mercy of your management company for some of the placement.With respect to rates, I have no delusions that the rates will come down, the refi is more a protectionary measure to make sure that we do not end up upside down on a mortgage if we just pick an arbitrary number and say, put 40% down on the property at 8%.

In essence, the best advice I can provide is know, understand .and respect the community you are serving and will go very far in this business.