It’s entirely possible to operate with integrity, provide real value, and still earn a strong income.

I am putting a laundry room (coin-operated) and storage units in the basement of my small multifamily.

A couple times we were able to collect but it was not as simple as make the claim and collect.  

Hopefully as the rates and the housing market loosens so will some of these guidelines in the HML programs. from talking to hard money funds especially those who operate in more than 10 states, and 5 years of experience with underwriting teams, I'd actually disagree and say new construction is preferred to rehab due to experience level to enter the market. there's BP lenders that will do 15% LTC with 1-2 new build experience.

That said, it could be a good choice if you’re capital constrained and need to recycle equity from deal to deal.However, if you have capital to deploy and want to take a more hands-off approach, targeting a turnkey, rent-ready offering could be a better approach for your first deal.Full disclosure: I own rentals and operate a turnkey provider in Tuscaloosa—let me know if there are any questions I can answer for you!

That could be as simple as changing the description to highlight how close your units are to the refinery as opposed to just the college.

Agree with @John Morgan, we operate in a very similar way.

My first thoughts are what kind of property do you have and what kind of rental are you operating?

It’s a good idea to confirm you have a path to record title in a way that’s financeable, even though this isn’t a standard fee-simple sale.The big question is whether it’s reasonable to pay a market-rate price when you’re not actually scooping up the land.

You could supliment this by creating a simple spreadsheet to track your total cash flow, including your mortgage and 401k loan payments.