@Charlene M murrill It depends on your income, credit score, the source of your funds and what other debt you have.

We have agreed that the loan will generate a 5% interest rate, and my partner will have the sole discretion about when payments on the loan will be made, i.e. when the interest on that loan became more of a liability than the continued use of capital was an asset, he could choose to sacrifice the cash flow to pay off the debt.  

The potential gross income w/ market avg. rent is $2.2MM -  7% vacancy ($158k) - OE ($735K) -Debt Service ($1.2MM) = Net Cash Flow Stabilized ($331k). 

These are blood-suckers going after the pot of gold because they know there's a very good chance they can scare the Landlord into an out-of-court settlement, wherein they'll get paid handsomely.

Debt to income ratio: They need to make sure that you can actually afford to pay the loan.

I have a career, but I'm interested in investing in real estate for more security and to become debt free.

Credit is great but debt to income ratio is high given my self employed status.  

., They probably won't lift the lien, but you could try this:  Have the seller who owes the debt contact the lien holder and ask if they will issue a release on the condition that all of his proceeds from the sale go to paying down the lien. 

Lenders, however, won't generally classify it as an investment property for debt to income ratio purposes until there's 12 months of seasoned rental payments or more AND it's declared on his tax return as an investment property. 

Dry closing is a settlement where money is not disbursed until the issues are settled.