The simplest solution is to talk to the contractor.

BesanceneyOne of the simplest ways to finance the acquisition of a business is to work with the seller to negotiate some form of seller financing, which is called a “seller note.”The vast majority of small business sales — 80%, according to industry statistics — include some form of seller financing.

That would be the simplest and cleanest in my opinion since they do not want to take on any of the debt.

@Kade RobertsonWhy not go the simplest route and buy the house from your parents.

@Mel Park Syndication at the simplest level is just multiple people coming together to do something larger that they couldn't do on their own.

Realizing that, and being able to execute, is the true measure.The simplest defense against 'Analysis paralysis' is market knowledge.   

The simplest way to do this is probably to pull the tax appraisal from the County Appraisal District (CAD) in the county your property is located in. 

I use Thunderbird on desktop, which creates a file on my PC that has my emails in it.As far as privacy, it's simplest to assume that any free-to-you "cloud" service is snooping your data, selling it to anyone with money, and giving it to the feds for free. 

It sounds like you like to take the simplest approach to tax filing.  

Furthermore, I'll assume what you are also attempting to do is use the 2% commission equivalent to cover that portion of the down payment needed to close on the purchase, which would give you a larger equity position in the deal.If the above assumptions are correct, the simplest method would be for your group to front the cash equivalent to the 2%, which will be reimbursed to you through the 2% commission collected at closing.