If not, who is approving  a loan to the LLC? 

Depending on how strong your assets are there are loans out there that would use your assets to get a loan approved.

If the partner hadn't been upfront with us I could have missed this and had no recourse to ensure payment, and because my agreement didn't include that the judge had to order it and it was up to him to approve or deny it.  

Provide a genuine pre-approval. 

My local bank has approved me to find a property to fix and flip.

I may spend like 1 hour talking to my PM OOS approving work orders and looking for deals other than that not much more.

I'm guessing this is a conventional buy, so make sure you have and use your inspection contingency to check for it being an approved triplex, and make sure you have your financing contingency in case the appraisal comes in low.

I'm thinking save up and only pay minimums until I can purchase a house and then pay off the remainder of my debt or clear my debt, renew my lease, and wait until the year is up?

I know it can be done however I don’t know specifics so if you could detail how you were able to get the property approved and if you had any hiccups, what the solutions were, and you found a good deal, I’d appreciate it!

You may then request rent increase annually under LA county rent control laws and they are very likely to approve.