You may want to explore cashing out, and structuring a reasonable loan term with your current strategy in mind.

Questions I have:- do I structure the deal where investors are paid out on an annual basis or keep them in as equity partners until we refi once the project is complete (3 to 5 years down the road)?  

They structure the class very well and offer lots of tools that help in learning the class material.

I have structured them all, and litigated against them, and for them.

We have carefully studied our options and are considering the best ways to structure our investments.One option is to purchase the properties through a LLC for liability protection.

This is my track record so far , in term of DSCR for each property:a) ex primary property A, DSCR 1.1x , purchase 350k, FMV 1.1Mb) ex primary property B duplex, DSCR 1.8x, decided to sell after BRRRc) ex primary property C condo, DSCR 0.9x , decided to sell when appreciation > 500kd) current property, ADU/basement, DSCR 1.1x purchase 800k, FMV 1.2M rehab 70kI do have others too that I purchased solely for rental, but yea in the last 12 years I've been collecting and selling primary few times.I am now understand there's product called no-ratio loan for primary mortgage, with this product this can be used if conventional can't be used.Again if you focus on your W2 and focus collecting primary you would forget to buy rental/OOS because appreciation every year is even greater than rental.Some hints: average appreciation is 4-6% depending on year ; but the beauty of this strategy is actually you live in the same primary house, your mortgage is 100% paid by your tenants and your tenant never meet you because we live in different building structure.

The 13-unit original motel, built in 1958, has been completely renovated to 2023/2024 standards and upgraded with all new electrical, plumbing, and internet structure throughout.

The structural evaluation that is now required (should have been common sense) is being done for the first time in fifty years in some cases.  

From CSLB:This section defines what an owner-builder is and the laws surrounding the practice.An owner-builder is what the term indicates: a person owns the property and acts as their own general contractor on the job, and either does the work themselves or has employees (or subcontractors) working on the project.The work site must be their principal place of residence that they have occupied for 12 months prior to completion of the work.The homeowner cannot construct and then sell more than two structures during any three-year period.Getting a GC license and going Legit is pretty difficult.

I would just stop going there instead trying to track down the owners and analyzing their corporate structure.