Anish Tolia The appreciation is far from a guarantee.

Most larger property management companies can write you a guarantee (of, say, half of what they expect you to make) and you can use that guarantee just like you would the lease from a long-term tenant.  

You do not tie the deposit to any guaranteed refund.

She said that they grant the loan to LLCs all the time as long as there is a personally guarantee on it.

However, our ROI calc as referenced above (about 22% in the first year with financing on a $93k prop) only includes cash flow and amortization equity, not appreciation (as it cannot be guaranteed, so it's more icing on the cake than anything else) or tax benefits.

I got an Option contract with $10 consideration and no guarantees that I could do anything on such short notice.

Rinse and repeat on a personal residence until you feel confident about building on spec or until you have the money to personally guarantee financing.

Profits come from discounts, servicing and guarantees along with obtaining deeds in lieu of foreclosure. 

It's "not a profit center," but a flat property management fee combined with first-year rent and maintenance guarantees makes me a little suspicious about years 2-10...3.

This gives you a guarantee of a minimal rental increase should the CPI calculation be low, something you can't control but with this method you have a "worst-case" floor minimum rate increase you can depend upon. c) If the Tenant objects to the "minimum floor rate", offer to counter with the addition of a maximum "ceiling rate" that the Tenant could be obligated to pay.