., It sounds like you are wanting to purchase your new property now and a few years from now use the proceeds from a 1031 exchange to apply to this property you are buying now.If so that will not work. 

I'm a recently recovering management consultant turned real estate investor and am excited to get more involved in this community.

I believe the best real estate projects are the ones where problems are solved for all involved.

Anybody here involved in this area can give me some advice??

Prev. owner says he got a lawyer involved and the lender cannot foreclose on him...

I however had to wait the 6 months to be able refinance off of appraisal because as you, @James Clements and I all know the delayed financing prevented me from getting back anything above my purchase price and closing costs as they were listed on my HUD. can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE explain in further detail on what you mean by involving your lender in the HUD before closing and on "loading up/optimizing the HUD".

Not sure if you're still working on this but I've been involved with one park with a lagoon so my experience is limited but in that case it was a financial nightmare.

In doing so I and my best buddy from college are partnering up to divide the operational cost involved upfront in investing in our first purchase.

It is probably the simplest way to get involved in real estate with no experience and still get a decent return without taking on too much risk. 

Is the unit they applied for somehow different from your other units?