@Ashish Acharya - of course you're right on the second home distinction.

I assumed it was done as payment for merchant services, but this would be a good distinction to make as well.

I haven't really made my distinction of SFH or MFH.

I reviewed the deal and pulled the trigger NO MARKETING to the general public I think that is the distinction and where the states department of real estate has heartburn..

Or, you can form an entity such as an LLC which would be on the title - within the LLC, you can each have a % ownership but you can also identify a % profit split, which may be different than % ownership.The distinctions between ownership and profit/loss distributions are important. 

@Katherine S.I understand what you're getting at, and I agree about government rules.One distinction that might help is that you are able to grow your retirement account which is for your benefit later on.

For example my local industrial market in Seattle is split generally into three distinct submarkets: Seattle, Kent Valley and Northern Submarkets (Everett, Arlington etc.) and brokers will generally specialize in one area.

Here is an excerpt (edited slightly by me) from an Appellate Court case in Connecticut that discusses the test:"If an agreement is personal, it cannot be said to have run with the land and thus cannot have bound the future grantee....For purposes of the distinction between real covenants (running with the land, or touching and concerning the land) and personal covenants, a covenant may run with the land or may be a matter between only the purchaser and grantor.

The 15 year loan will have less interest paid towards it over the life of the loan but the 30 year loan has some pretty distinct advantages. 

If you wanted to offer on 5 homes at 90% of the asking price, I wouldn't be OK with it either.The distinction between your agent and myself is I would have taken the time up front to thoroughly educate you about the market, shown you some data to support it and agreed on a strategy together before we looked at any properties.