You can invest in a syndicated fund, or individual deals.

One denotes respect for the inhabitants, the other disdain.And,I love your thought leadership in these communities.

When you say joint venture partners, are you talking private individuals?

This is not a strategy for the primary residence of individuals as they would utilize the $250K/$500k Section 121 exclusion nor investors who plan to reinvest the proceeds into another property as you would simply use the 1031 exchange for that purpose.  

Typically these types of deals are funded through community banks, credit unions, or private individuals lending money. 

@Levi VincentI would look up in public records who owns the house (whether it's owned by a new individual, a bank, the city, etc) and contact them. 

Working with private money is all about the individual.  

You need a private individual who believes in you to loan you the money knowing that another lender will pay them off when you sell the home.You are going to need an Executive Summary and a Business Plan to persuade them to put up the money unless it is someone very close to you. 

I would prefer not to have to deed to individuals and back into company name to refinance these properties.

The TN process is less cumbersome and there is no limit to the number of TN visas available to an individual.