The best advice I can give you is to study up as much as possible and don't make an investment purely because you want to be an investor.

Its hard to make a decision purely on they were already in place, and he helped me buy the property.

Seems to me that its pure incompetence. 

However, there are some things to consider such as capital gains taxes (cap gains are treated differently on a primary compared to a pure investment property, usually you wouldn’t pay cap gains if you’ve lived in the property for two out of the last five years, but do pay cap gains once it becomes a true rental income property and not a primary residence, but everyone’s taxes are different and I’m not an accountant so check out the tax piece on you or own as it relates to you personally), any potential upcoming expenses related to the property (HOA fees increasing, special assessment due, major capex, etc.), how you will manage it, how it fits into your overall investing goals and lifestyle goals, your experience level and desire to own rentals, etc.

Our model is buy and hold real estate through pure rentals, personals turned rentals all being class A properties so smaller margin but lower expenses.

They were pure equity lenders.

I learned a ton, which helped me when I started picking up pure investment properties.See you around the forums!

Sure this isnt cash flow city but it gets me started and has to be a step better than purely renting until i find some unicorn deal. 

Great tips I'll definitely pick up the book and I've now started to look for some local groups :) you've given me some pure gold!

Chances are since you are living in the property you'll get better financing terms so you can really generate a great cash on cash return.Also think about when you don't live there and make sure that the property still looks good under normal circumstances as in a sale to a pure passive investor.