If you are just starting out, I would suggest partnering with some great Realtors and communicate with them that you are wanting to learn the business and in return for their expertise, you will be giving them deals.

My general rule is avoid east germantown even though the returns look nice the quality of people will suck the time and money out of you.

If someone wants to put up some of the money and be an owner than either that person doe a loan to the company in addition to his ownership or He or she can get a preferred return from the membership of the company.

The purchase price is 255k the deposit required is 40k, the investor is proposing for me to provide 20k and will give me a 12% return on top of my 20k deposit.

Second you could create a single member disregarded LLC (doesn't file it's own tax return and you are the only members). 

In may areas Multi family provides inferior returns in today's market. 

At lower profit levels, there're minimal or no tax benefits.If you're married, an LLC filing a partnership return may be the best option.It is acceptable to not have any business entity when you start, as long as legal liability is addressed with insurance.

If they are at 4-6%, you can certainly  make a bigger return in real estate.

Its been a few years so my memory may be fuzzy but I'm pretty sure that settlement was not tied to HAMP.

I am looking to put down as little as possible to increase cash on cash return and have money left over for reno.