The main advantage is that the company itself pays no taxes but they must pay out 90% of income to the shareholders, thus huge dividend yields.

However, they are paying one of the shareholder as a contractor for managing the minor resposibilities such as receiving rent, depositing check, etc. 

EquityBender (Startups & Business Financing) Company description: "We seek to help Software and IOT companies raise capital online and build shareholder value."

If the other partner is only shareholder, how is his/her investment (I.e., downpayments) protected?

Remember the reason Insurance Companies are in business, it is not to insure your loss, it is to insure profit for the shareholders.

That type of thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth in regards to the stock market.Too many times i've seen shareholders just wiped out like that even investing in or with a supposedly stable company. 

You can write some language into the partnership about purchasing minority shareholder's stake after a third party appraisal if things don't pan out.

Good job getting to the podium at the Shareholder meeting.  

The question is, if my father and I are shareholders in the LLC, would we be able to get a mortgage with reasonable rates?

I have been looking at possibly making shares for the purchase with the hard money group being a majority share holder of the purchase, or with a repayment structure over x amount of years on the borrowed money.