Am I nuts?

When used appropriately, they prevent you from ever being low hanging fruit for a lawsuit.

If you can be crystal clear on that, and see what you might offer that the mentor doesn't have, it may be the beginning of a fruitful relationship.

I’m more getting lost in the nuts and bolts of actually getting the thing built.

This book does a great job of giving the nuts and bolts of the process. 

I hand my 4 inch thick tax returns with 14 LLCs etc etc.. and the Lender / broker / decision maker looks at me and says.If you think I am going through all of that for one 300k loan your nuts.. come back when you want to borrow 5 million and build a bunch of homes..

Having said that, if he is an owner occupant, I think that it is outstanding that over 2/3 of his monthly nut is covered by a tenant.  

You won't develop a good reputation (no one will want to sell to you) if you constantly offer asking price and then hammer them over every nut and bolt.There are so many offers on multis here that all of my investors are taking the properties as-is, doing a pre-inspection with their contractor or at least including a limiting clause in the contract to show they are not looking to nickel and dime the seller.

Any other pet add-on advice is appreciated.They are smoking on the patio, also expressly against the lease terms.They are into organic gardening, which is fine, but has resulting in a bit of a swarm of fruit flies in the dining area.

Yes, it would be nuts to have a mortgage just for the benefit of deducting the interest, but there are other -- better -- reasons to have a mortgage.