He exited that relationship after getting bombarded with calls from foriegn investors demanding their money - they netted less than 5% after the expenses, commissions, and other fees were extracted.

Investing with an experienced syndicator can provide benefits investors may not receive if they choose to go the DYI route, including:Access to better deals: Syndicators are experts at finding great deals that never become available to the general public.Lower investment amount: Similar to the way you can purchase shares of public equities, investing with a syndicator enables you to purchase shares of much larger properties than you could on your own.Free up time: Passive investment allows investors to focus on the important things in their life while the syndicator does all the day-to-day work.Lower risk: Investors leverage the syndicator’s experience to avoid making costly mistakes.

Are you suggesting that having equity in a property is bad, and that extracting the equity is better?  

If they refinanced is and extracted out their initial investment the return would increase further.BTW the house my parents purchased in 1969 for $19.5K is worth ~$1m. 

Portfolio loans enable borrowing against equity in multiple properties, while hard money loans provide swift cash access, though they can be pricey.

This enables them to buy cheaper properties, larger quantities, take more risk, etc.

Cheers to you and your Daily Grind Extraction Techniques!

We have purchases that now have rent to purchase ratios >4% ($16K/month rent on $375K purchase); imagine the cash flow if no money has been extracted!

This goal will enable our family to have a secure retirement plan, college (or business startup) funds and long term passive income to vacation and travel whenever we would like."

Enabling bad behavior is bad both for the person you are enabling and bad for society.