I have extensive experience with this as I was in the restaurant industry for over 10 years before getting into commercial real estate.By checking the books you can see sales patterns for the type of product they sale.You can see over the past few years if a majority of the sales are seasonal and then if that part of the year has already occurred.If the strong sales are still ahead of them in the coming months they can have a good chance of catching up.If they have already had historically the strong sales months of the year then they are in really bad shape.Also it's important to note their sales volume over the years versus new competition in the area.If they have a burger joint and within a 2 mile radius 4 more burger joints have opened up and sales are declining along with profit margins then they are in trouble.Does your current tenant need all the space they have??

@Gerald Harris Unless the decedent was a joint tenant, her interest needs to go through probate.

This is a recent article from an attorney on how they're structured in the Joint Venture world where a sponsor teams up with a capital source, in this case private equity funds,  to form a borrowing entity.

Some are very archaic, like the use of hub and spigot cast iron piping with lead and oakum joints in waste and vent systems.

if you have a separate lease with each individual you should collect separately, but if you have one lease and all tenants are separately and jointly severable, than I suggest collecting from only one person. this is because if one person does not pay the others may not notice/care, but you are then left with a partial payment for which you must attempt to evict on. from what I have heard, it is tough to evict if you receive partial payment.

Too many joints and they are not bound, consistent, and uniform structural assemblies.

@Matthew AlexanderYou should allocate the expenses over the period that it was considered a rental property.One other thing to consider is that you may want to consider selling the house within the next 3 years(2 years from now) to get the benefit of excluding up-to 250,000(or $500,000 if Married filing jointly) of gain.

Currently my middle brother and I own a SFR in Las Vegas jointly and I personally own a duplex and my primary residence with my wife.I am getting a little overwhelmed as to which type of entity we should setup for this partnership. 

Might be risky for your first joint venture...As for help with bank related questions...how about we do a good ole' fashion trade off-- I'll PM you one of my buddies' numbers who has a ton of experience with refinancing and dealing with banks.

This is a fairly common Joint Venture strategy.