At the time the tenant refused entry, your relative was NOT the owner. 

I have a lot of connections in Texas.Is your relative looking to put their business in with an SBA loan or just for investment?

I'm in Clermont, not too far from your relatives in the Villages, so happy to help.

If you indeed have tax exposure to both countries, you'll most likely be able to offset (or eliminate) your related US income tax with foreign tax credits.Then...there's the question of what other foreign filing obligations have have as it relates to the US...possible FBAR and/or 8938 if the money moved through a foreign account, or even was held in a foreign escrow account. 

@Sean YuanThe easiest way to structure it is to keep your relatives as secured lenders, as opposed to equity partners.But if you do bring them on as equity partners, you need an LLC and two professionals: 1. a business/real estate attorney to draft a strong operational agreement protecting everybody2. a tax accountant to do tax panning and to make sure everybody is on the same page as far as tax consequencesThanks for the mention, @Basit Siddiqi.

Ask yourself when you or many of your relatives were 19 and 20 if someone played escrow games on their very first home purchase would they have caught it?

Not sure if this is the right forum to post this question, but I'm wondering if anyone had any suggestions on where is the best place to get your REL?

Your relative would be better off just listing it for its appraised value.

-Depending on your relations ship with this competitor perhaps you can partner up?

Best of luck to you and your relative.