When you say 'legal one family', do you mean that it is zoned for single family residential?

Even a single-family home with a legal additional living unit could work if you can find the right property.Because you want a property that needs work, I would be careful not to take on something that is too distressed.

Any idea how much legal fees and headache having a condo regime set up would be?

This is fully legal assumption process.

There's a certain firm out there I've seen that advertises this and uses scare tactics to sell expensive estate/legal packages.

I would not try and raise money from people (alot of legal implications), but if you know people with money who want to invest, you may be able to get preferred termsAlso sometimes best to partner with someone with experience as well.I see yes I agree on that.As homeowners we understand how much sheer determination it takes to save for a down payment.Would you recommend using OPM like a hard money lender to buy the property or would you recommend buying a property in cash?

The Judge always asks to see the contract if more than 6% is asked for, but it appears to be legal according to what is happening.

Purchase price: $700,000 Legal 3 family in Essex County.

I.e. if you don't input what was told to a tenant, complaint or what not, you (employee) can't come to him and say it was done because it might as well not have been done.Particularly with disputes, and even more particularly with legal disputes, documentation is absolutely essential. 

Congrats and good luck.I'd recommend against a syndication on a deal this size because you can expect the costs to be $10K+, which means you are giving up a large % of your profit to legal fees.