To me over leveraged means you have big car notes  your CC are close to or are maxed out and your only making minimum payments you go buy furniture and you finance it.. you buy real estate with the least amount possible down at market prices.And your cash reserves would only last you a few months to service all the debt.So no retail debt pay cash for anything you consume or use  OTHER Than a vehicle and decent amount of TRUE equity in your real estate no FO equity IE refi appraisal but you know the home would never ever sell for that on the open market. bascially follow Dave Ramsy and @Steve Vaughan  over the years on BP has written some really good comments on how to build an empire while balancing family life and fiscal safety..  

How would you structure a deal if my partner is bringing in all the risk capital, DP and CC to acquire a 4-plex that we’re planning to convert it to 5 units?

If you're buying in a C/C+ neighborhood demand will be high and so will prices, but the stress level as a landlord should be lower. 

Assuming my personal debt to credit is extremely good (780 credit score, 50K savings, high income with low expenses)  Talk to a lender first your 780 could drop bc of the outstanding and available cc debt. 

Columbus in particular is still a great market to invest for cash flow and appreciation hybrid, it’s just harder to find deals that cash flow handsomely.In Columbus you can find 1% rules in B-/C+/C/C- neighborhoods with a little bit of work, but to find those in A/B class now is not a realistic expectation for a new Oos investor.Overall you should find a good investor friendly agent in your market you want to invest in and have him/her start sending you deals.

Joe,Can I look at it this way...Out of pocket expense is $63,680 (d.p and cc). 

All bank accounts, cc accounts, PM statements, and mortgage statements should be consolidated on a separate set of books.

But I'm not completely opposed to going into temporary cc debt with the prospect of a $20, $30k or more profit in short order.I have a business line of credit that I can use as well as my personal credit cards but I'm just trying to see what I can do with the help of HM and maybe not have to touch my cards or at least not hit them too hard.

If we were doing it today we'd use a CC system.

I even pay all my cc bills in full each month.