But they will still have to file the gift tax return although they will not owe any tax. 

As a car guy and former owner of several muscle cars I can assure you that you’ll get a better return on investment in real estate than in classic cars .

A mortgage or first trust deed is considered a lien.life capFor an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), a limit on the amount that the enterest rate can increase or decrease over the life of the mortgage.line of creditAn agreement by a commercial bank or other financial institution to extend credit up to a certain amount for a certain time to a specified borrower.liquid assetA cash asset or an asset that is easily converted into cash.loanA sum of borrowed money (principal) that is generally repaid with interest.loan officerAlso referred to by a variety of other terms, such as lender, loan representative, loan "rep," account executive, and others.

However, most investors will also want to see some type of guaranteed return before I participate. 

I do not want to nickle and dime tenants to up my cash on cash return by 1.112133551678%.That being said, I am starting a renovation project converting a SF to a duplex. 

It is a lot of risk for the potential of only a small amount of return.

I could easily get that done for 2k easily. 

Without selling, I want to tap into some of it for investing purposes, but I've got the good old favorite DTI hurdle that's preventing me from more easily accessing it from a conventional lender (I checked with a credit union already).

It could easily accommodate two providers working at the same time. 

@Mike Van Arsdale, I saw a very interesting chart the other day comparing 25 year returns of real estate over all to the stock market to real estate 50% or less leveraged.