It's kind of disconcerting when I can only raise rents by 5% but insurance is increasing by 10% to 15% per year. 

Increasing for times when there is more demand and decreasing when it is slow. 

That sounds like a lot of work and I'm sure he would prefer to avoid that work and just sell it for $1.9m or $2.0m.if I were to buy it from him, to get to cash flow neutral I would need to increase rent on all 6 units to market rates and my monthly payment would need to be close to $6.2k/month, which would be $100k down payment, $1.7m loan with seller financing at 2% interest rate and flexible ballon payment.What would you do if you were me? 

@Placeholder PlaceholderOne word of caution I would advise: If a community or local government is enacting restrictions and also regularly enforcing them, then its often a reflection of the local community sentiment which increases the chance of a neighborhood or nearby resident calling you in if they think you may be running an STR.

Perhaps if your partner was a general contractor or handyman type there may be some merit there to reduce costs / increase profitability.If your partner enjoys deal sourcing, a better move might be for him to become an agent - so he could legally collect commissions from finding deals and managing properties for multiple people. 

They don't mention anything about paying payroll taxes, workers comp, complying with laws, etcReal estate agents can have a team around them where they do have employees if they have admin/support or marketing team.Regardless, if you want to interchange small business for commissioned sales people in my post you can.My post was mentioning that service providers in the real estate space are incentivized by their advertisements as it will increase their annual income.

Housing has always been super affordable there, and new construction has increased in recent years.

Exemptions to getting a 2nd FHA loan per HUD handbook are:-Job relocation 100 miles away or in another state-Increase in family size-Vacating a jointly owned home (ie - divorce or the like)

The US taxes global income which dramatically increases the reporting requirements.

Borrower has the 3% loan in place for the duration, and 14% investor can be paid off with increased rent in say 18 months.