It's large, almost 1400 sf for a 3 bedroom condo built in 2001 (so it has the blonde cabinets) in a gated community that is kept up well.

As far as end game goes, I would like to scale my assets to pull in more passive income by leveraging what I have into more and higher cash flow properties.

I know that you want to send a message to whomever did this that their target(s) are no longer residing there, but I can't recommend strongly enough to NOT put a large "For Rent" sign in the front yard.

If the mortgage broker or banker does not use the FM/FHA rules they may try to amortize the loan to calculate DTI which usually won't work with large student loan balances.If you contact Fannie Mae they may be able to give you a list of the banks to approach and I believe most large banks offer FM products.

They could have been hit with some very large fines.It sounds to me that although I would not be liable for any previous tenants' lead poisoning, I could still be sued by them since anyone can sue anyone for anything. 

In our market right now builders are creating apartments or large homes.

Property is an operating chicken farm (chickens net over $90k income/year) with an operating pet boarding Kennel (nets over $100k per year) along with over 80 acres of tillable land, a newly renovated 4 br/3 bath 2500 sq ft home, large (100x200) shed/building/garage and separate office building (12x24) for Kennel.

Any recommendations on shielding him from the inevitably large tax burden?

There is no benefit to having a LLC as a beginning investor and the likelihood is that if you do not grow too large you will never need to go that route at all.

We just went under contract on a 284 unit deal in Houston, TX.We used a local attorney for the PSA (purchase sale agreement) and who was familiar with local laws and customs like using the Texas equivalent of an ALTA title insurance, etc.Also keep in mind that for commercial projects, a large (6 figure) deposit will be required and in hot markets a portion of it will be non refundable.