@Mason Jeffries - You personally have to be a landlord for a couple years before they can count all of your rental income into your DTI calc.The easiest way around this is to use a portfolio lender instead.   

I think the difference in the two approaches is that the one you describe is a capital investor who is not much more than a private lender (functions for JVs and flips more clearly), vs a capital investor who is an involved and long-term member-partner in establishing a portfolio together with the worker (managing partner) within an LLC for the life of a long-term investment (or two or three...). 

In this case, you aren't banking on or needing natural appreciation (already in a good equity position) and you have positive cash flows to build your portfolio.

Also I don’t want to lose these 12 units from my portfolio but I don’t have the funds to buy out my other partners. 

I have built my portfolio in the Berwyn and Cicero areas right outside the city. 

As for the buyer, same situation, we did business in a completely different industry, but again a very healthy amount of trust, good will and rapport was built and when I mentioned I had properties to add to their portfolio, they literally begged me for a deal. 

Our next course of action is to start speaking with credit unions to see if we can get a potential 90 day unsecured loan or portfolio loan.

One of my issues here is the DTE ratio; on the property itself, I would be at a 2-to-1 ratio; it would put the entire portfolio at .13-to-1.

Now the reason I set up originally a “business” loan despite it being four units was because it fell into the category of a portfolio loan.

I want to build a long term cash flowing portfolio, but it’s hard to for go a quick hit at a return.