@Chris Seveney We havent asked this question yet, How would we structure this?

The property was finally sold to a developer who built a 3-story structure housing 6 condos that sold for half a million each.Getting variances is quite time consuming in our area and I attended quite a few community board meetings which one has to attend before going to a zoning board meeting.

Oddly enough in this document they define multi-family as: “ "MULTI-FAMILY" means a structure containing three or more dwelling units or a bed and breakfast dwelling that has six or more guest rooms. 

For illustration purposes the cheaper Delta fixtures most investors purchase at Home Depot or Lowes aren't sold at plumbing supply stores because Delta licenses these less expensive options exclusively to the big box stores (same is true for other manufacturers as well).

If you are not in Huntsville or Madison proper, you may want to wait out things for a minute, as some of the outlying areas are definitely tilting toward supply exceeding demand now.  

There are less foreign national programs but I know of at least one foreign national program that structures the loan this way. 

So how should a buyer then structure his offer to stipulate that the seller must reimburse the buyer for that commission?

Make sure you understand how the property ownership is structured there.

I'm sorry you're going through this, but take it as an opportunity to step back and create some structure around what you are doing OR hire a PM who has those in place and will protect you from frivilous lawsuits. 

I’ve never used private money and was wondering how I could structure it?