We typically employ a week-long trial period during which we'll give them a single project (e.g., making 10 seller calls, or posting 3 houses for sale on Craigslist).We make sure to provide detailed instructions and give them crystal-clarity on what successful completion looks like, and then we turn them loose.At the end of the week, we'll assess their performance.

Because real estate markets fluctuate there is never any guarantee of what a property may sell for at a future date.

If you are more interested in growth, and not interested in cash flow, equity multiple could be the focus, if you couple that with hold period timing.There's no absolute answer that covers everyone, but what IRR does is it takes into account the amount of cash flows, the direction of cash flows, and the timing of cash flows to quantify results that you can then compare to other similar options. 

The inspections can be pretty frustrating, but guaranteed rent for that asset class is valuable.

After that, no guarantee as to the increase.Is this normal or is that a red flag?

He then added, with a 1% annual expense ratio that most advisors charge, that return over the same time period would have been cut in HALF. 

Not to expand on the "family dynamics" but I would personally be concerned about having to deal with family requesting access to the property for periods of time as well.

Not sure if a resi inside a commercial enterprise would be the same but it certainly could be.  5 years goes fast and  refi's are not guaranteed.  

It's also important to keep in mind that every additional rental property you own is another potential source for legal trouble, so if you grow to a certain size, it's almost inevitable that some tenant will get a valid reason(such as falling through a porch you didn't know was recently termite infested) to sue you over a 10 year period.

Look at the data over a long period of time.