@Jason Bajaj  In addition to Dave's comments above, your Canadian partners should obtain tax advice from a Canadian accountant or attorney specializing in cross-border business as their is no equivalent Like-kind deferral under Canadian tax law,  CRA is going to see capital gains as being due on the disposition.

I hired them last year to act as maintenance/property management for my Dubuque properties, after Cory reached out to me on BiggerPockets in response to a post I made.  I thought things were fine until recently, I had...

Gambling ?

If this 15k is only out of 400,000 in cash you have to invest then it is a under 4% gamble if it's non recourse of your total liquid available funds.

He wants to attempt it again but I want him to understand that with his credit all jacked up the banks are not really working in his favor.The guy wants to use the owner finance as the last option and wants to rent it out now until he knows if the loan modification will go through, I think he is gambling on the wrong thing and will end up losing the house, leaving him nothing but a loss.  

My easy border fence recipe: I just used the flat top 6 ft pickets and 4 x4 pressure treated posts at the big box store, and 2X4 rails; Dig the post holes, I set them and packed them with sharp gravel (so I can pull it up if needs be to sell or if there is a need to remove)... attach runners; cut the pickets in half and screw them on following your strong line (it is more for boundaries than security or privacy)...

Lockland is very hard for outsiders to run an analysis on because it is so small yet borders such vastly different areas. for example Wyoming is to its west with house in the millions and Lincoln heights to its north with All combined houses may not even equal $1 million. during college I bought a house in lockland and lived/rented there with friends.

Okay guys, this feels like a super-newbie/bordering on embarrassing question at this point.

Again, that severely limits your S8 pool, as most of them have some kind of felony/misdemeanor/etc.I've had four properties on S8, two in the ghetto, one a 93 unit apartment complex bordering the ghetto, and one a nice duplex nowhere near the ghetto. 

Even still, a turn-around project, at its’ very essence, is a calculated gamble for all.