, you'll also want to iron out if he transfers the property at a zero/low value to your joint entity vs holding in his own name.

I don't know if I should partner with the current homeowner, or have the contract transferred to me, essentially transferring his equity to me, or what?

I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian to the above posters, but let me first qualify my post by stating that your market will determine what you should do.We frequently install en-suite laundry in our units - in fact, we have removed common coin-op laundry in most buildings of 6-units or less in favour of en-suite laundry - for the following reasons:electricity and, in most cases, hot water costs are transferred to the tenant;where water is sub-metered, water costs are transferred to the tenant;high-efficency residential laundry machines are about half the capital costs of commercial coin-operated machines;we can command $30 - $50/month in additional rent with en-suite laundry;by installing our own machines, we know they are installed property, with catch/drain pans and {going forward} leak detect shutoffs; andwith en-suite laundry vandalism of laundry machines has been non-existant ... and if a machine is damaged, we know who is responsible.We have a good rapport with a couple of local appliance suppliers and get called whenever they have "dinged and scratched" units to unload ... a small, cosmetic dent in the side of a washer - which will never be seen when it is installed in a laundry closet - can be worth a 40 - 50% discount.  

We are being cautious and making sure the numbers work for cash flow and reading everything we can get our hands on - PLUS - listening to BP podcasts!

I know a handful of agents in the Atlanta area that have a lot of experience and I am an agent as well.

If an area says "No kids outside exercising or playing sports related games".... then everyone's hands are tied. 

But get some peace of mind by transferring these to the best financing at the best terms you can get (i.e. conventional).

In this situation, you would wish that you still had the original in your hands. 

This site is full of amazing hands on information and building your team that can get where you want to be with your real estate goals .

and in vary degrees  I have seen it first hand..