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. 

Saw a similar situation with friends.

I’m in a similar situation but plan to meter water and power with my own units that can be read.

I can's imagine a situation where all 4 tenants have elected to hand wash their clothes and use the dryer (there is no utility sink in the laundry room).Can you think of any reasons why the dryer would be used that much more/washer used that much less?...

I'm eager to learn about how to find and fund properties that help my family financially and my community with affordable/reasonable dwellings for young families and newlyweds.

We are pushing hard to make this right for you, and are actively working to improve the situation promptly and accurately.

Do you need to empathize with the seller and their situation?

HELOC can be good for this situation - then you can pay it down and use it again for other life events etc. 

Germany's resilience to global financial crises and its strong fiscal policies create a favorable environment for real estate investment.Moreover, interest rates in Germany remain at historically low levels, largely due to the European Central Bank's monetary policies.

For your situation, it sounds like a seller financing purchase could be a good fit as well but this would also have limited options and the terms wouldnt likely be great.