If all of your partners are both investors and GPs, then a JV should be sufficient. 

Depending on SF, you might be able to get a 2 ton unit that will work ....But you're talking $5k....you can buy a lot of window units for that.....do you have sufficient existing amperage to run them all at once?

If your credit score is sufficient, a conventional loan will be cheaper. 

This approach helps my sellers by giving their property sufficient exposure to the market and generally results in multiple offer situations, but it also gives buyers, who are by and large, from out of state, an opportunity to come and see the property in person or at least have their buyer's agent do virtual FaceTime or Zoom showings for them.

Your legal remedy is to force the seller to close through specific performance, and if you had sufficient language in your liquidated damages and default language the seller may also have to pay your legal fees.

Self sufficient country people is who I rent to 

If you can get one of the tenants to leave before closing, you may be able to do FHA (3.5% down), but for a triplex you will run into the self-sufficiency rule. 

As for the humane part of this, I think 30 is the minimum and 60 should be sufficient for this time of year.

My reasoning is that your income may not be sufficient to pay for both the mortgage and rent for an extended time where you don’t have a Tennant during remodeling or someone isn’t paying their rent.

Thanks $1.5m is below the loan limit for a 4-plex in the SF Bay Area, but it's not going to pass the FHA self-sufficiency test unless the listing agent is completely incompetent and you're getting 40% off fair market value (good luck).Duplexes do not have the FHA self-sufficiency test, that's the sweet spot.