People offer to pay cash up front or rent for a longer term in hopes of avoiding any scrutiny.

@Noah Bacon Investors should be aware that, in many states, an investor can not act as Owner/Builder on a property that is not their primary residence.But as far as what Investors tend to screw up, the list is long and painful: Structural - Awful framing, undersized headers and beams (or none, Lol)Electrical - Don't even get me started......Plumbing - Not as bad as electrical but still....leave it to the Pros.And the main thing that people screw up is, believe it or not, painting.

Which of the two, SBA or commercial loan, offers the best terms?

(https://learn.lofty.ai/en/articles/7025226-sell-equity-in-yo...)I understand I can also sell and do a 1031 - I've successfully done that once, and failed a second time (could not win an offer and ran out of time - had to pay a ton of capital gains tax). 

With a property like this, you're probably going to have a lot of turns, and few long term tenants.

., 6.125%, 3.204pts, 25% DP, no ppp - 8.72% CoC ($82K savings over 30yrs) If you plan to keep this for the long haul (10 years) then you really should look into at least a couple of quotes with a 5 year prepayment penalty (Non QM - DSCR) - this should be able to get the rates down on that to near your conventional quotes

Purchase price: $120,000 Cash invested: $1,111 Sale price: $210,000 Contributors: Peter Vekselman Partner Driven, in collaboration with our partner Antonio, successfully completed a deal on S Homan Ave, Chicago, IL.

It's taken a long time and a lot of work to get to that point.But people still have a negative stigma.

As long as you purchase at least as much as 75% of the net sale. 

Sounds like you will need a short term hard money lender for this transaction and a JV partner for the downpayment.