I'm a Property Manager and the knowledge of housing and mechanical things is really helpful in managing vendors and issues that arise.When your experience is a little larger and your pockets deeper you can dive into development.

I don't presume to understand all of the mechanics behind a crash like that, its just hard to believe that weathering a crash would be that easy.  

Everything works and is mechanically sound.However it is a 1960s house and hasn't been updated for some time.

Buyers do not want big issues (roof, foundation, major mechanicals)

I even had one guy rent the furnace/mechanical room for a semester & his GF would often stay over.

@JscottCan you explain the mechanics where one adds themselves to the title of a property where  the property is currently mortgaged .

After all, when you refinance it, if you manage to find a way to do so, it might require less in debt service payments but its still would be pretty close to breakeven cashflow and possibly begin to lose money as you begin to deal with major cap-ex projects like roof replacement and mechanicals.

Could vary up or down based on the condition of the property and age of mechanicals and big ticket items (e.g. roof, HVAC, etc).

you need to compare apples to apples.. unless your looking at turn key inventory and then homes on the MLS  ( not Zillow or truila)  that is what you need to look at.most turn key homes by reputable companies will be extensively rehabbed .. were MLS homes from a homeowner that has lived there 20 years may have 20 year old mechanicals roof etc..

Granted, I didn't do TONS of homework on it but from what I saw, the mechanics of how it worked for funding REIs appeared to be pretty much like I've always understood that it worked for anything else.