Just renovating right now and trying to take lessons as the process plays out.

Most accountants play not to loss and don't play to win. 

your partner should be only passive as a "limited partner" and does not have any say.. to avoid stalemate on these ticky tack decisions you should have a minimum of say $5k where your partner will play a role on the decision.. and perhaps choose a mediator "a seasoned investor" who both of you agree to that can decide an outcome..

The All I'm showing is how the power of leverage plays out over time.You could just as easily start with one $500k property with the DP at $100k. 

Played a little hockey while I was around there as well.

You need to do your numbers on this one and see how it plays out across your various scenarios.

I've played with the idea but it seems you have done much more research and education on it.

Is LA just an appreciation play?  

And about 30 or 45 minutes worth of other bullet points, often the result would be that you would then go back to the taxpayers with (this is often how the choice would play out) "hey here's option A or option B, A has you paying less in taxes this year, but you mentioned that you might want to buy a home this year, option B might be more advantageous for that.

Loans on single family homes and 2-4 units are considered residential loans and those, generally, don't want to lend on LLCs.However, when you're dealing with bigger apartments like 20-units...having an LLC is for all intensive purposes, required (loans on those are commercial loans).