We are also considering providing proper notice at the end of the lease and charging pet rent, etc.

include predictable appreciation (or use IRR) to have a fully loaded return calculation; otherwise, you will not be able to properly benchmark across property classes

It depends on what money you have and what experience you have....If you have $0 money to invest, no HML will work with you...I, for one, would never work with anyone with $0 out of his pocket...If you have no experience, again, no HML will work with you......His proposal is about what you can get, assuming your time and effort on managing the project are properly compensated?

So CAP rate alone, even when applied properly to commercial property, is not really an indicator of total profitability.

It's thousands of dollars per year just to get and maintain your license.Plus you still won't know how to properly put together the offer just because you have a license.

One format is where family members constantly refer their kin without proper disclosures and without it being too obvious.

(Remember, they have to play well together to get you set up properly).  

You's want to be sure it is properly zoned for 4-units.

Also check around the foundation to make sure gutters are good and water is running off properly.

I think you'll find that you'll be losing money every month.To your question, yes, in absolute dollar amounts, mortgages are expensive..i.e. 158k expensive in this case, but there are lots of ways that they allow you to get ahead if used properly so think of it as spending money to make money.