Not sure if you were looking for a long-term hold on a two family, but it seems that was not playing out favorably for you. 

And the one time we did get sued by a tenant the LLC never  came into play (slip and fall on ice that the tenant won a nice settlement on from our insurance company, insurance company handled it all). 

Sometimes having someone play devil's advocate is also useful.

If they had not found the deal or participated at all, you would not owe them anything since it was off-market and they didn't play a role. 

I have seen that play out as well.

Unless you bought RE a few years ago, created equity via successful BRRRR, flip, or do a combination you're just playing the appreciation game. 

And too play a little devils advocate..

Credit scores are a reflection of someone's ability to learning and understanding the rules of the game and haveing the discipline to play by them.If you already have good credit, already pay everything on time (autopay), then increaseing your limits will probably help you the most, because it gets your utilization down, ideally under 10%.Higher hanging fruits are average credit and account age (just have to wait for that I guess) and inquiries, which are sometimes unavoidable as real estate investors.  

I am always cynical of those that post on here stating that they have X number of dollars, but I'll play along.2.

I know its a longer play, but that would I consider if I was you:-)