Perry,
I wrote out a long reply to you and dropped it.
In short your friend is probably on the right track. Hopefully it is a quality, relatively new building and he has a fixed loan. If so, it is a good starting point. Somebody else is building his nest egg and the cash flow will get better over time. If he does this well over time with more properties and the US Economy is relatively normal(including recessions and bubbles) for the next few decades he will make huge gains in equity and cash flow. I prefer SFR. Multi family has more potential but one has to start somewhere.
Next:
There is much more talk about International and out of area markets on the “Ben Jones Housing bubble blog”…WARNING wear a virtual hard hat in that zone!