Saw a similar situation with friends.

I look forward to learning everything there is to gaining financial freedom and becoming an investor. 

Unfortunately, unless you see the underlying financials as well as supporting data for those financials, you do not know whether there actually was cash from operations to pay your distribution or not. 

I see many situations where one generation wants to buy out a prior generation or, more typically, siblings.

Any advice for the situation would be much appreciated!!! 

Once again, I had to ask my family for financial support—a daunting task after the first loss.

Based on your situation, you will likely need to recapture the depreciation when you convert the property from a rental (STR) to your primary residence in 2025. 

We are the renters in this situation but we did not discover the discrepancy and how it was all calculated until after we signed the lease.

[Click the image to see full size.]Real estate investing is for achieving financial independence.

It would just need to be a situation where they have great contact with the person doing that managing of the project (I.e. have known the person for years, great reputation, person has experience in flipping etc.).