Be sure he doesn't have a constant late payer that he's wanting to push off on you.  

@Wen Chuang, As well as being an investor in the Bay Area/San Francisco, I also run a property management company in San Francisco and what you're asking and describing unfortunately doesn't have a simple answer and falls into those all too familiar words of "It Depends."

Yes LLC is a "coverage" by definition of a legal entity which is not you, and it doesn't matter if the liability is triggered by an STR guest, an LTR tenant or a handyman working there etc.

Doesn't make any sense.

That doesn't change the fact that the vendor provided a valuable service... only who would pay (or contribute to) the bill.

Most of the business style loans are there to serve a need where one doesn't exist already. 

Hey @Nathan WiebeNever done that but maybe one possibility would be to have the US friend to be the mortgagor.He doesn't necessary need to be the owner and it doesn't mean that he is the one, in practice, who has to make the loan repayments.This setup involves a great degree of trust between the friend and the Canadian investor to the extend that it is questionable whether it is a good idea or not to set it up that way

From there, ask if he doesn't mind your reaching out from time to time for advice, or even ask him to be an unpaid intern to help his business.

Only being 38 units doesn’t really bother me if you live somewhat near the facility, but the sizes of the units bothers me.

They will also have "mortgage insurance" too but it doesn't last as long.