With that said- if there are no scores reporting, you can still qualify with showing a few alternative trade-lines; such as cell phone bill, utility bill, car insurance bill, etc. 

Is the developer/GC providing materials and labor to the partnership at his cost? 

Its marketing material. 2.

Alternatively, you may need to factor in a larger repair budget to address the vacancy issue, effectively eliminating the risk. 

I was just hoping there was an alternative for them instead of a large tax bill if we went down that route. 

A scope can show you all sorts of important things other than just whether the sewer line itself is in bad condition (it will show you the material of the line, junctions, turns, tree roots, settlement points, etc.

I have a 4 unit building in Long Beach CA and looking for alternative rental property insurance companies.

Surface the material issues.  

And are they production builders that to provide the product at the cost they do use basically the least expensive materials possible and beat the crap out the subs pricing.so there is a fine line there you cant pay low price and expect supreme product..

The alternative was them struggling to pay rent on the 1st and being late.