Maybe delay the education a couple of years and buy that duplex anyway... then maybe a second and a third. 

It consists of two buildings he has mortgaged and one building which is much larger that is owned by another party (it's a multimillion dollar downtown building that's out of my reach to purchase).

The third was caught on camera. 

etc etc or more likely tell you what you already know, ask the same questions you answered several times before and give you more work to do as a third wheel?

It was a great deal for both parties, considering the buyer has 2 solid tenants with a 1% return MoM return.With the apperciation amount and inital capital, I set up a 1031 exchange.

I'll third that.

If you have two applicants with scores of 700+ and a third with 550 then you could deny their application because of the person with 550.When I rent to three or  more unrelated people, I require each of them to have a credit score of 650 and make at least 2x the rent for a combined total of 6x the rent.

Material misrepresentations or omissions on the Application will constitute a default under the Lease or Rental Agreement between the parties.

We don't plan to use more than a third of our HELOC at any one time so our payments should never be outrageous and then we can refinance the property to pay back the HELOC.

In other words, they can't "launder" their title by washing it through a foreclosure and then redeeming and paying only the auction price.If the bank still owned the property, and there was a balance due on the note for after the foreclosure, the redeeming party would redeem from the bank and have to pay the full balance on the note, not just the auction bid price.