But your refi may or may not give you the great FHA rates you mentioned.To me, I see these deals as pretty complicated and tend to shy away from them. 

I'm in a possibly complicated scenario, so any feedback or help would be very much appreciated.I'm looking to purchase a 4plex with an FHA loan, but after walking around the property there might be some issues meeting the FHA's minimum property standards.  

It can often really affect your resale value with the tenants  there and showing the subject too with covid complicates the situation even more .

If you form an LLC and go for a loan, first off, the LLC has not income or assets so will have trouble qualifying, second, you will be in a commercial loan which will raise the rate a point or two and have a shorter amortization and probably a balloon payment.This may be a little over complicated, but if it were me, I'd do the loan in your name, put the house in a trust right after you close and make an LLC the beneficial interest of the trust (basically just run all the expenses and income out of the LLC because a piece of paper in your filing cabinet says you can).

One of the biggest complications to your location is time and timing, and the foremost way I see people thriving in this context is through relationships that can allow an agent or partner stateside to "run fast in your authority" once they understand your criteria and you have established trust.I hope this is useful in your search!

I have been told that it can get complicated at the sale of the home, because you will have depreciation re-capture. 

Getting complicated.   

That would allow you to have a great, low interest fixed-rate debt on them and conserve cash for other investments.Ultimately you and FIL's agreement can be between the two of you, or it can be official, usually in the form a management agreement, operating agreement (of an LLC), or some sort of more complicated agreement like a Joint Venture.  

I don't think there is anything that complicated with assembling and installing cabinets so I plan to do it myself.

3. is there a tax ding for converting these overaged funds over to a traditional IRA4. now here is where my "bright" idea comes into play. even though this feels quite complicated, is it possible to recharacterize this overage to a traditional IRA and then immediately set up a backdoor roth and then merge the backdoor roth with my existing roth?