Dont forget you can also use your IRA to buy rental properties at an arm lengths transaction deferring gains for years it is a a little complicated but not too bad 

Most good QIs charge for doing exchanges not for the consulting that surrounds them because they know the complicated nature of the beast.  

Everything looks more complicated than I think it should be.

Because I am new at this, concepts that may be simple and common to the experienced investor are quite complicated for me, so I decided to ask clarifying questions to aide my understanding.

Look them up.Local REI meetings are a good place to find these unregulated loan sharks, but not saying they may not be fair, if they have the money they may be willing to get involved with you, a bird in hand type thing.Finance laws are complicated and a hard money lender limits their funding to commercial transactions, most stay away from consumer lending.

This 2014 taxes will be the most complicated one by far, with itemizing RE expenses, etc.

Unless you can pay off your existing mortgage with the down payment of $37k or $45k, you can't really seller finance this deal (at least not without a much more complicated wrap or subject-to arrangement). 

To complicate matter the sellers per the contract are supposed to finish remodeling one of the units, which is currently pretty gutted.

This can be more complicated to negotiate since your partner will want a good return for their effort, but you want to pay as little as possible to maximize your return. 

It's more complicated than a max rate for the current period.