He basically has had use of the property for the past seven years with no rent obligations.

Here are the 3 most basic ways.TENANCY IN COMMON- An undivided ownership in real property by two or more persons.

It’s a simple in concept but extremely detailed and paperwork / knowledge intensive strategy.

If they are privately owned and in your name then there is no risk of that and it just becomes a basic dollars and cents question on the terms :)As far as lending I can say that there are companies that still do no income docs loans for investors since that is what I do exclusively!

@Lana Lee We got $85k with a 1.6% margin for the life of the loan. 10 year draw period, 20 year repayment period, no minimum withdrawals or annual fees, no prepayment penalty for paying off the loan or closing it out early. basically we never have to touch it if we don't want to.

I purchased the most basic plan.

If you want to sell the concept of the project, then I would try to get your neighbors into a contract and find developers that would be interested in pursuing it.

First one is a basic intro (we buy houses, want to buy 2 in your town this spring, selling direct is great for X reasons, let me know if you want an offer), second one highlights what type of sellers typically like to sell to investors (own timeline, no hassle, house needs repairs etc), third mailing is a simple postcard that has similar message on it, fourth mailing is a letter saying I've reached out before and thought you might find these FAQs useful (and I include a 4 pg FAQ distilled from my website)-- I expected that letter to have more response (you'll see above the 4th mailing had a <1% response rate) and it may be that ppl are waiting til after Easter to call, as I get more calls after holidays when ppl have had time to talk to their family.How to track all of this... you can guess by now that I'm super data oriented.

I get the concept. 

Basically return on capital. usually much lower then if you do the value add yourself.