Your goal #2 is going to be tough in this environment.  

Even 2-3 years back, the prices of triple deckers in Eastie were 30-50% less.In terms of what you should do.. it's a tough decision and completely up to you. 

Making the purchase all cash, is not as awesome as it seems – we tied up $195,000, which made things a little tough specially because we finalized another purchase right after this one.Things we learned: (1) having cash on hand is useful, we saved ourselves some money by financing the project ourselves.

Both names are on the deed. here’s the down and dirty on the house:Mortgage— 434kARV—- approximately 650-675kMortgage is current my friend needs to stay in the house for the sake of her 5 kidsShe owns her owns her own nail salon/spa which is mostly a cash business Her credit score is 600ishBecause she is not a w2 employee she will have a difficult if not impossible time getting a conventional loan. she has asked her ex how he needs to walk away from this mess and he said he wants half the equity. 

It's a tough one that I'm thinking about too.

I could tell them about an issues (incredibly rare) and their HR department would handle it immediately.A company may pay a higher rent for the flexibility of moving their employees in/out at will.Challenges - I wasn't always aware when a new tenant would move in/out.

., with a hard money loan added to what you have, this would be possible, otherwise...NY tough.

Since the markets are so tough right now you may want to consider stacking your capital first.

If you are eligible to set up a Self-directed Solo 401k (i.e. self-employed with no full-time w2 employees) and you are eligible to withdraw funds from your current employer plan, it would be easier (as well as avoid mandatory 20% withholding for taxable distribution from your current employer 401k) to simply process a direct rollover/trustee-to-trustee transfer from your existing 401k plan to your solo 401k. 

This is a tough market and a deal that good probably went for full price or over asking price in this market.