I'm actually jumping on here to let you know that am also an investor around the Champaign area, I'd love to connect!

Wholesalers (no offense to those in the comments) who are doing this without being a foreign entity are probably co-wholesaling which is on the borderline and practically acting as an agent without a license or getting referral fees by having actual wholesalers on the ground doing deals and they just provide the leads which is different than wholesaling.

In this case, would he actually need to pay any money for the down payment, or does it basically cancel out in the debit/credit line items?

Actually, even the rent she would pay would be essentially a forced saving that would eventually come back to her.

While it will not reduce the actual cost it will help with the monthly cash flow.I am curious if this was a single-family house converted into a double.

But in reality, holding on too tightly limits growth, causes burnout, and actually costs you money.Why Letting Go Helps Your Bottom Line✅ Frees Up Your Time – Instead of handling every single tenant issue, you can focus on strategy, acquisitions, and big-picture decisions.✅ Allows Specialists to Do Their Jobs – A leasing agent will lease faster than an investor juggling 10 different tasks.

Each year they adjust it up or down based on actual usage of the previous year.Let's say you get an average of $600/month. 

And an actual lot split which was a SFH on .85 acre now turned into two separate lots, with a duplex on each lot.

The equity is actually what you are paying for the property. 

So this would actually work against the intended purpose.