Doing it this way will allow me to qualify for one of my other rental properties and assume the mortgage at the existing 3% (DTI issue) 

Does anyone see any legal or accounting issues with this plan?  

You need to drop the issue with your parents before you damage that relationship.

With interest rates at a steady increase, typically investors in Multi units are looking at 8-11% interest on conventional, commercial, and PML options.

I looked at tampa but it's more of a suburban market. miami has over 21 zip codes you can go up to 8 stories in because of the affordable housing issues and it is the only city in Texas and florida in the top 10 most affordable housing needs ranked by city. it's not even close. 

None of this is true in todays market though, you pay more per month to buy than rent anywhere in our area & frankly the country at this point, so it takes time for both having bought to be worth it and to move out and make cash flow, there are very few if any properties that are “value add anymore” I’d know because I look At 17 counties daily for deals & if there’s one I’d have bought one, heloc’s are bad debt ar this point, usually double digit debt, again all of these issues are solved with those but if your gonna live somewhere for a year or two he would probably rent and no amount of realtor ******** changes that, this market is different than a low interest rate environment and people owe thier clients at least to properly explain that to them.

Jerry, multi-families small balance loans mainly and financing that makes sense below 7% with longer terms as we buy and hold. 

Hey @Eian Trenkle, I'm actually dealing with the same issue on a STR of my own.

Seems like your biggest issue is rent - what is market rent and what prevents you from achieving that rent?

That might give you some experience running a house, hearing what people are willing to pay for rent, management issues and all the other things involved.