@Justin Brin Yes, you can elect to aggregate your rental properties for Qualified Business Income (QBI) purposes, but once you do, you must continue to aggregate those same properties in future years unless there is a significant change in circumstances (such as disposing of a property).

I've partnered with several contractors over the years (before I got my own license) and it is very normal for the contractor to be paid for materials and labor, even if they are doing the build "at cost"It's complicated and as other have stated, you've gotten yourself in too big of a mess to be sorted out by some people on an internet forum. 

Cleveland is cash flow, we do build to rent in columbus urban infill where prices are the highest and land prices make sense. rents are good and on a DSCR can pull out cash and do again. easy scalable strategy and sell the portfolio eventually 1031 into something greater.

If you're doing a rate and term refinance, there's typically not a seasoning period but again it's common for lenders to require it be rented first.If you're doing a DSCR cash out refi, it may not need to be rented first but you're probably paying a higher rate.Your best option is to call a loan broker you trust and go through the options based on your current situation.

Some context, I have 3 other properties in a different city and am currently on 1099 income (so I can't do conventional) for the past 3 months.

I want enough money coming in so the business can sustain itself when issues occur with maintenance or vacancy.If you wanted to do this with only 20% down ($46,000), which is all you need for a conventional loan, here is how the calculations change.Total mortgage + escrow $1,493.33 per month with cashflow reduced to $306.67 per month.I prefer to overestimate purchase price, interest rates, and homeowners’ insurance to be conservative.

I also do it so that it covers everything.  

He doesn't have to do either. 

We want to do this transaction so we can upgrade our living space, have another rental (our existing house), and eventually rent out the new house (his house) after we grow out of it.

Many people won't invest in funds, including myself, and those that do only invest with people that have a long track record.