Grants/government assistance can be a great way to get help with the downpayment, but be cautious as some can make the loan terms worse for you.

Pending how bad the staining - i.e. how long the smoker was resident.  

What else should be doing in terms of tech, CRM, networking, social media and marketing to have max effects on mentee locating, market identification, tenant marketing And deal finding....

The private investors form an LLC and get standard loan terms in a promissory note without equity or profit sharing. 

And how long does it take to rent?

If you’re in this for the long term you’ll need to make the odds favor you, not hope that things will be ok.

For multi-family going as a long term rental it will be hard to make cash flow unless doing a serious amount of down payment or getting a great interest rate.

But ultimately I’m not opposed to taking a calculated risk as long as I have a complete picture of the situation. 

Many agents don't know what that is and sometimes they freak out because they think it's a scam.But in terms of the structure it's a simple and often used strategy. 

We're also able to evaluate our rates, and keep pace with inflation, on a monthly and quarterly basis because of shorter term leases.Now we syndicate larger self-storage deals and work with passive investors.