In my experience its a combination of all 3 then adding more and more stories about exactly how bad their previous PM was...

@David To wow, what a story!

However, I discovered The Players' Tribune which is a journalism company that empowers professional athletes to share/write their own stories.

Long story short we lived in west valley in those new apartments by wincoAnd boy oh boy is it a different world in west valley.

We have received plenty of bookings through these methods, and we're not professional marketers or photographers...we're just documenting and putting our story out there in an authentic way based on the advice from Gary Vee.We have had a lot of photographers reach out to us and ask to stay for free in exchange for pictures or a blog post, but we have turned them all down and no regrets so far.Mike

Said they started with a $2 million loan, borrower couldn't pay, so gave the guy a $4 million one since borrower gave a good story.

I told my story on BP Podcast 238.  

I’ve read stories about people buying a portfolio but having each individual property appraised prior to purchase, and then either cash out refi or sell individual properties out of the portfolio for substantial gain.  

Anecdotal story:  I just walked an industrial property that we are in contract for (single tenant, NNN lease).

The biggest horror stories I hear are from investors with 1 Unit and their tenant falls apart and so does the investment.