They have a balloon payment for the principal due in 10 years.

To structure a partnership, consider forming an LLC where you handle property management, renovations, and operations, while the investor provides the down payment.

The payment structure with the family is also not a secret.  

There is a book in the library called "Low (and no) Money Down" that discusses the various methods of financing purchases.

I have often stated there are two ways to make money in Real Estate....The California method and the Texas method (I certainly understand there are many more ways to look at investing but I am OVER simplifying).  

We use a third party servicer to do all of this - much easier and when starting just tracked payments in wuickbooks as servicer tracked everything else 

Trust invests the cash to make the payments on the installment sale to the seller.

The tenants, who were always good, fell on hard times and could no longer keep up with rent payments. 

@Jeff Love Here are the things that many CPAs support their clients with:Understanding tax impact of short-term vs. long-term vs. flip before you buyWhich entity structure is best for goals and investment property typeTax and compliance on LLC or S-CorpHow to transfer property out of personal name into LLC (hard to buy 1st through entity)Ways to optimize taxes throughout the yearHow best to set up accounting to track income and expenses (doing this late is a mess)Feedback on property management systems, accounting systems. systems, etcEstimated payments to avoid penaltiesKnowing when to file and getting things in on timeMaybe a few things I missed, but this is the high-level ….. if you can get answers to the above questions on your own, plan, and file your own taxes then you can avoid the expense of a CPA.

A follow up question I now have would be do you think its smarter to completely pay off the first property before buying a new property or to keep going out and buying new properties once i have enough saved up for the down payment along with extra fees?