Your buddy needs to get a lawyer and regain control of his property.

A lot of condos here in Las Vegas run into trouble with financing because the owner occupancy for the community is < 50%, but generally speaking the bank should tell you precisely why.If you don't want to put any cash down, you can research creative financing techniques here on BP, but the more creative the solution, the less appealing it is (generally speaking) and is a tough sell in a hot market. 

Instead of putting money into a retirement account and losing general control of it, why not look for alternative methods to reduce current year passive losses and tap into prior year suspended passive losses? 

Hi BP, I am trying to structure my first L/O deal on a duplex I want to gain control of to rent out.

First, i would not furnish the places, it will probably get trashed, let them get there own furnishings and make sure that the lease says they must remove them from the property when they leave. i would have them pay for utilities, to an extent - have them pay for electric, supply the heat but give them an allowance for certain amount of months ( especially if you have older furnaces and they run on oil heat ) if they go over then you charge them for it. i converted mine to gas with new furnaces, i include heat in mine, but i control the thermostat ( online, thermostat is locked at the house ). i also provide water / sewer and free internet.

You have a lot more control.

Most likely North east LA but all of the properties in that area are rent control. 

Are you looking for folks to work for you/partners on each property or you looking for a management company to control them?

Boom an LLC you control is the trustee and no names to the public other than a company that works for your best interests. 

Need some ideas on how to get this under control.