Possibly using a professional third party vendor for the pre-inspection is a great idea, give a copy to the owner and tenant Excessive holes in walls Broken tiles or fixtures in the property Plumbing backups Repainting where a tenant has repainted from the original color Tears, holes, stains or burn marks in carpets Missing or damaged blinds Broken windows and window screens Broken doors and locks Broken or damaged appliances Excessively Dirty Pest control if you see Bugs and or fleasJunk or trash left behind Past Due rent Fees incurred from fines from the association due to the tenants conduct or lack thereof Water damage to hardwood floors Missing outlet covers Remotes for garage or gate if not returned Rekey of locks if tenants did not return the keys Unpaid utilities, as long as they were part of the lease agreement Undoing a tenant alteration This is a sample of things that are usually considered to be normal wear-and-tear and should not be deducted from a security deposit: Slab or plumbing leak Normal rug wear.

I'm interested in knowing the strategies that others are using to obtain control of their equity.  

They would have no interest whatsoever in putting pressure on their margin by building too quickly and having units sit in their hand for too long.Result of this is an equally limited/controlled availability of rental units, simply also because not every new construction is rented - there are actually people who owner-occupy as well, so I've heard LOL.

It is clear that the presence of all of these factors would compel the conclusion that a sale has occurred; moreover, since a single factor is not controlling, the absence of any of them would not compel the conclusion that a sale had not occurred.

They have a shorter seasoning period, but also a lower LTV value as well, but their guidelines for a cash out refinance are less strict and cheaper too.In any case @Gary Jouver is right though, it is definitely possible, but in order to pull it off it seems you need to have a very careful and precise plan.

Until then, you as the developer control the property.Getting sales going is the barrier.  

If they have Care Custody and Control of your property, but no insurance, you could open yourself up to range of claims that are not coverered on your Lanlord policy, such as Work Comp and Discrimination claims. 

Another benefit of being an owner occupant is the building is no longer subject to rent control.

Search for something that is not in a rent control area and with rents below market.It won't be easy to find the deals, but there are some out there from time to time.

Contractors seem to like to choose which jobs they tackle on their time line and according to how they feel.By you segmenting the job you control which items get done first and you can monitor the craftsmanship and attention to detail of the work completed.You learn which contractors to use where in the future.