Which equates to heirship issues, leins from the city for keeping the grass cut, interest in those leins depending on how old they are, and a host of other potential hiccups. 

@Paul CaputoIt is dependent on location of the taxpayer, but generally speaking there is less federal-state decoupling with respect to S179 than bonus.

Some loans it also may depend on how much value the structure is bringing vs how much the land is worth. 

It depends what they are looking for, for security.

Depends on where you are in the city and what size multi-family you're looking for.

@Edgar Butler Jr it is very dependent on what your comfort level is when dealing with equity.

If you don't do this correctly, the county can reassess the property, and depending on when your dad bought, it could add up to several thousand dollars more a year in property taxes because of Prop 13.  

It can be both, depending on your investment objectives and market cycles.

@Brad Greenstein it depends on the condition of the property.

It depends on the state/jurisdiction of the LLCs involved, but a TX Series LLC for instance is only required to file "no taxes due" annually.