This is a benefit to you but also to the seller if they are thin on other assets.

Also the loans are different in you are buying multifamily with 5 + units or say triple net leasing which uses mainly CTL lenders.Regular banks in some cases are giving out just short term loans as they want to relend the money when inflation kicks in at higher rates.Lenders who specialize and fund a specific assets class you can usually get longer terms and better rates than your local bank.

Actually, I always wondered why more investors did not partner with their local housing authorities.

As it seems clear you will be using financing your short time frame to move into an apartment building via 1031 exchange seems aggressive Trading in depreciated assets can be a challenging task, I am sure you can find much more information on 1031's within the site.

those are the most important issue being sued by buyers.An LLC (or a business entity, in general) will protect any assets outside of the entity in the case of liability within the entity.

Contract to purchase the property subject to the lien, pencilling out the best deal you can with the seller giving you full credit as if the lien to remain.Then, under contract, make the asset extremely unattractive to the IRS.

Are they a residential brokerage or a brokerage that also has a commercial department but takes listings all over the different asset classes??

There was an article posted recently on the BP blog about partnership agreements, written by an incredibly smart author (ok ok it's my post) In any case hope this helps: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/10/real-estate-partnership-agreements/

Attempting to take all you can is not underwriting.HMLs aren't banks, they can't borrow through the federal reserve, they have a limited amount of money to work with and while it does make perfectly good sence to maximize profits at the highest utilization of assets, being excessive is not in the public good, nor is it for the industry or themselves in the long run.

I've shown him my bank statements in the US (which are over 3X the amount of the rent for 3 years) I've shown him my assets I own free and clear in the US (which is over 40 times the yearly rate).