But first and foremost is for him to protect himself and my opinion is for him to keep collecting the payment and put it in an escrow account to determine at a later date.As Machiavelli put it, "But above all he [a prince] must refrain from seizing the property of others, because a man is quicker to forget the death of his father than the loss of his patrimony.”But for me, it would be simpler: I can't imagine explaining this whole escrow-account-and-don't-mention-it business i to one of our local magistrates here.

The sponsor should be communicating the good and the bad, while explaining what they are doing to mitigate the negatives.

Then, after a few years, you find a few deals, explain why you selected them and ask him to vet them for you.

What objections did you get?

You absolutely need to ask a CPA what they think about the  idea and also a lender, but explained the way I did above, I see no reason why there would be an issue.As a side note, have you considered making your first investment a house hack?  

In the spirit of not writing a book here, DM me with your contact info and I'll call you sometime and explain. 

Step back, take a breath and calmly explain the situation to a few more eviction attorneys in your market.

Sharing the whole process, showing the numbers and explaining what it all means will be huge for your son. 

It also helps to focus at the beginning on a specific niche and become very well tuned on that rather than chasing the shiny object.

I didn't explain much else to him, was just sort of picking his brain.