It is quite true that someone considering a tax strategy with which they are not already familiar should not rely on the opinion of someone who has a financial interest in the transaction. 

If the house isn’t in financiable condition I would recommend going the hard money route to purchase. 

The former requires examination of financials and the latter requires involvement of a real estate lawyer.

I’d market it with the financials, so a newbie investor can look at it and salivate over the $xxx month!!

Either you sell at a higher price and give him the controlling unit or somebody else sells and you're left holding the bag.This guy wants the whole building to take it private and convert to apartments.Somebody else will stand in his way and prevent that, but their life will be miserable. 

New update on the BH&J Rent vs Buy Index. https://business.fau.edu/departments/finance/real-estate-initiative/bhj-buy-vs-rent-index/bhj-summary/Interesting to note that most major markets have officially crossed over, where renting your residence and reinvesting what you would've spent on a home makes more financial sense than buying.

I want to achieve financial freedom and retire early by owning rental property and doing flips.  

Paid off the note, put 26k in our pockets and the second house is now free and clear.So, we got all of our money back, plus about 44k, and instead of 5 houses mortgaged, we only have 4, and another one we can do some financial maneuvers with in the future.edit..

I can't get a job until I graduate but, I am pretty damn confident in my financial and investment plans for the future.

Unfortunately, this is almost never the case with financial planning.