Don't rely on the seller or what's in the listing.

You're spot on, except for believing (if you were) that your ARV # is what the Bank will rely on.

If this complex is owned by an out of state investor, it seems preferable to have a management company that would provide more stability rather than having to basically rely on a tenant to manage.

These days, my flipping business is mostly hands-off, as most of the deals we're doing are as equity partners or lenders -- someone else manages the deal, and we provide money and/or support.I've put the rest of the money into rentals, notes (both real estate and business), angel investments and other businesses I own that generate income.My strategy isn't that much different than Beau's, except that:- Beau uses leverage to generate his equity; I flip houses to generate my capital;- Beau generates all his income from buy-and-hold real estate (as he must, because that's one of the few asset classes that can be easily leveraged); I put my capital into many different income streams.Because Beau is relying on leverage to generate income, his returns are at the whim of the market -- if average returns on rentals in his area are 7%, that's going to be his likely return on his portfolio. 

They must rely on sponsors for equity deals, and third party loan servicers for debt.

I think I would need legal and maybe accounting help ($$$) to add a trust or other layers.My preference is to rely on the LLP/C backed by a decent amount of liability insurance.  

That is what you would rely on not any anticipated growth in equity gains from your proposed new purchases.

As a result, cap-rate compression (i.e. the ratio of net operating income to property asset value and often a predictor of how profitable a property will be) has been able to stay at moderate levels, which translates to higher yields for investors.While the the big six cities continue to be of interest to investors who enjoy the security of those markets, increasingly investors are more willing to take calculated risks with emerging cities.

I guess the importance of that relies on your relationships with your father and siblings.  

I would not want to rely on someone else's background check.I have not spoken to anyone from the insurance company, which supposedly is going to make a decision on allowing its clients to rent from me or rent a furnished place.