If I'm lucky, I could negotiate retaining 10% ownership of the property for finding and arranging the deal.

Maybe some of us could get together and share resources or Hire some one on retainer.

Guests must retain a copy of the policy and managers must retain one as well.

For a DSCR loan, you'll need to put down 20-25% which is a lot of money out of pocket.If you house hack, you can put 3.5% down with FHA or 5% down with conventional and retain a lot of your capital. 

I hear there's some recent activity and interest in the area with regards to drilling from oil companies.Sometime back in 2008 we raised 1.5 million dollars for roughly 4,000 acres release the mineral rights my numbers may be off a little but we purchased the acreage for a 386 an acre and then turn around and sold it for $770 an acre and we ended up being the operator on the project and retaining 18% override.

Long term buyout: Half profit plus if I sell within next 5 years, he retains 75% of his DP, after 5 years it decrease X% per year until the 10 year mark.

You and/or your partner would only realize a taxable event if you withdrew the retained earnings from the company (either as a dividend or via a share repurchase).If it is the latter case and your partner is buying you out, then you simply agree on a price for your 50% of the property. 

He retains some upside long-term, but gets some cash now. 

Another benefit of using the Trust is that we retain the “step-up” basis whereas if we had used the LLC the capital gains tax liability would have transferred from my father-in-law to the LLC.

One thing I am not sure that you mentioned- did the entity disburse ALL profits throughout the ownership, or did it retain some profits year over year?