Or does this arrangement work fine for most tenants. thanks.

IMO, any long term arrangement that ultimately causes title to be transferred will be a disguised sale and financing arrangement, call it what you will, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and in the end you have roast duck on the menu, it's a duck!

Do you think it make sense to arrange a local contact/manager?

Unfortunately, I don't even have the 10% down I can make arrangements to swing $5k down at this point.

Yes I have considered but it doesn’t really work with my living arrangement.

(Trump does not use anonymous C corps - he has TRUMP in big letters on his buildings because my understanding is his attorneys use this very same technique)So the liens that strip the equity in your properties are not fake loans, they are created to truly capitalize a legal entity, hence the "economic reason" that holds up in court.Look it up on line and you will see there has not been one federal case challenging such an arrangement provided your liens were recorded "prior to" any lawsuit being initiated or filed against you.This structure saved an acquaintance of mine millions in a lawsuit on an apartment building in Chicago, where the litigants tenants wanted to slap him with punitive damages in the millions, but could not because there were no equity and if they would've won and gotten a charging order they (the plaintiffs) would've been stuck with a phantom income tax bill based on IRC 77-137Pursuant to Revenue Ruling 77-137, the IRS requires the judgment creditor in possession of a charging order to pay tax even though income was never distributed!

It is situated on a large double lot where you can swing under gorgeous old live oak trees or just enjoy this bird watcher's paradise among many flowering trees and shrubs.

It was an interesting arrangement honestly.

What is the economic arrangement of the deal?

Is there any way I could pursue this deal and work out an arrangement with seller to get one of the units vacant (for example paying for tenants relocation costs)?