Focus on how to juice cash flow if possible (rent by the room, separating spaces, etc.) or decreasing expenses (assuming a loan, looking at new build incentives, aggressive offers w/ rate buy downs that work for you, etc.) 

He is a mentor of mine as well, and is not so interested in making money but rather he told me that he likes to see 7% in his passively invested accounts, so I offered and he accepted that I would pay him 8% APY On the principal that I borrowed. 

We are currently offering 12-16% interest to our private money investors which we feel is a strong offer in this market.

@Augustine Ubah VERY few PMCs offer rent-by-room services!

We just made an offer on our first deal.

So if you're buying a stabilized cash flowing asset, the returns you'd have to offer a PML would be lower.

They offer wealth management but they also offer joint venture deals where they look for partners to purchase Multi-Million dollar REI portfolios. 

It's also crucial to use a Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) calculator to assess the financial feasibility of refinancing in the long term.If you need any assistance with these calculators or ensuring their accuracy, I'd be happy to help.

I think the Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty markets offer great rentals with lots of different types of levels of rent.

Perhaps you can find one working in real estate services -- like Property Management, Contracting, Lending, etc. -- where you can learn the business while getting yourself in a position over time to make investments.