They do not like doing these complex forms and charge quite a bit for them.

Without a financial education - it's hard for him to discern which.What he should NOT do is to buy toys or spend it on fun because it'll quickly be gone.If he was financially savvy or versed in real estate - he could even buy a small apartment complex and self manage it if he had some property management skills.Advice should be catered to him specifically though, blanket advice isn't that helpful.

I’m sure they aren’t advisable on larger projects but depending on the project size and complexity, they worked great for me. ~$650 for the study. 

Legal Compliance: Navigating landlord-tenant laws can be complex.

Whoever taught you that I would go to them and do what they did as this setup for an ownership structure in my opinion is far to complex and your CPA is going to be scratching there head at end of year with all the tax stuff they will have to do and how you have to keep bank accounts for each entity and move money form one to the other to the other....

If you have trouble managing 1 tenant that renews once a year changing tenants every 30 days will add a lot of complexity to it for you

Advanced asset protection via a complex entity structure is for most investors like wearing a bullet proof vest when grocery shopping.

On large complexes you can look up their website and see if they have a leasing map that identifies address/unit.

Anybody can live in the large student housing complexes but there is a much more limited supply of rental houses near the University. 

Personally I am looking to grow in RE and buy a 2nd home in LA/SD and eventually buy a multifamily complex.