Managing five rentals can eat up a ton of time in any given week, often at times that are inconvenient to you and your personal interests (family, hobbies, travel, etc.).Of course you can manage on your own.

Have met him personally a couple times and he is just a great guy all around. 

I personally think being a landlord in Chicago is easy and I have never had an eviction. 

This person did not raise any money, they invested around $600,000 into the offering and because they were one of the larger investors were considered a Co-GP because it was a new sponsor and they needed this persons $.

Conducted personal research.

Unfortunately, this problem waste a lot of my time that could be spent on other investments.I have used the same tax professional for many years and he is very educated, but also much older than me and it's hard for me to understand all the reasons he has expressed why is better to put the rental on my personal tax returns.

Or a personal loan if interest rates aren't cost prohibitive?

I have a situation where a person I know is moving out of the country and would be looking to put their home for sale in the summer.

Buy it personally, and rent it full time to my C-corp?

Personally for what people charge for these programs I would say you are 1000x  better off taking some courses at a local college, getting a degree and working in real estate to get paid for experience and then do real estate on the side for your own portfolio as well.