I'm fairly confident that I can find roommates to help me pay off the mortgage.

I would just start communicating by text or email unless you can't avoid it. 

Second, when you put the townhouse into service as an income property your basis must be the lesser of fair market value or cost.

Try to start off in your "backyard" or somewhere fairly close. 

You want to make sure it is completely fair to them. 

I'm a small and fairly new real estate developer in the NYC area.

But it has been fairly well maintained.

To be fair though, it was great while it lasted.....His strategy would be to buy liens on properties that hadn't had lien in the past, and if they did have some that they were paid off fairly timely... only owner-occupied homes... and other criteria that gave him a some level of confidence that they would be paid off (he wanted the 18% interest, not the property). 

I would prefer to have PM in place as well as a tenant in place, or at least know that the deal will not close until the tenant is in place.For full transparency provide a list of comps dated within the most recent month and only about 1-2 mile radius max (we know you need to make money on the sale but would help establish trust).Communication seems to be one of the biggest pain points I read about so maybe focus on that as well.

They're responsive and provide great communication.