I made myself take QB classes and struggled for years, my CPA said what I am doing is about 80% correct and it was a ton of work to clean up the files. 80% is not acceptable for me when it comes to IRS stuff.

Is this process pretty self explanatory if I just follow the correct steps? 

Even though the house was originally bought with cash, this is still considered a 1st position lien, correct?

We built our personal home from dirt up and while it definitely can be more challenging, you will capture additional value vs buying new if it is done correctly. 

They generally don't want unpermitted issues on the books any more than you do.Better to do this ASAP and not mess with it, you want to show that you are serious about getting this corrected.

Also, I don’t believe that their management has any direct equity (correct me if I’m wrong).

you are correct!

For an off-market deal, the broker doesn’t necessarily have a fiduciary duty to me if I’m the buyer, correct?

If you are correct, I think it's far more than just the multifamily market that will be in trouble.

Verifying rental history often takes a long time tocomplete due to applicants not giving us correct landlord contact information, landlords not returning our callsor refusing to give us any details.We also deal with applicants trying to have family or friends pose as theirlandlords.