Your friend has about $7k per year cost of maintaining her property - if we ignore utilities (unless they are included in the condo fee, which sounds too low to cover all utilities) and maintenance. $280k divided by $7k is 40 years.

I have some options with business lines of credit as well, but before doing this I wanted to check on why more traditional loans are being discouraged in this case (and if this is common).

Hello BP:I’ve been approached by a professional who would like to lease one of my apartments and utilize it for AirBnB.

I've found that most of these properties have the rent amounts listed as well as what the current owner is paying for with regards to utilities. 

While I am new and probably not the best person to offer proper real estate investing advice at this point, I can tell you that one of the common themes I hear from talking to many successful investors echoes what @Jay Helms said above.

His numbers I was basically able to take utilities as he was in constant remodel mode I decided to use estimates for repairs/capex.So I did a quick walked thru the property on a Thursday.

We bought a duplex last year, which was built as multifamily, all utilities are separate.

PM will give you a great baseline of practical skills for real estate investing i.e. handling leases, landlord tenant law, utility structures, maintenance, improvements, maximizing property value, keeping books, marketing, conflict management, working with contractors and vendors and a whole host of other skills and knowledge.

He tells me this is a common "takedown" for this type of sale.  

This is a very common and popular way to get started investing and it's highly encouraged.It's known as "house hacking" around here on the forums.