Alternately, use your contracting skills as what you're bringing to the table. 

Materials - could have saved on a bunch of items, now that we know where to go (we bought all the materials and also did the landscaping).

You don't want to buy and then find out it is illegal as a duplex.As an FYI if you wind up doing cabinets check out Building Material Outlet they have a location in Minneapolis they were Waaaay less then Home Depot here in phoenix, less then half the price and carried a lot of cabinets in stock here at their Phoenix location.BMO

Shoddy subcontractors, substituting poor quality materials, etc etc are commonplace.

The real problem is that the gurus go out and teach things that work some of the time as something that works all the time because it sells material, not because its how things should be done. 

An alternative is to screen them for good pet ownership (fill out a separate pet application) and charge pet registration fees and pet rent.

But you need to show that you had the intention with some documentation, like a signed lease for the property, newspaper ads, craigslist ads, photos of for rent signs on the property, etc.And unless you do another 1031, by selling the 1 property you'll owe taxes not only on the 1 property sold but also a portion of the gain from the first property relinquished in the 1031.An alternative would be to suggest to the buyer a rent with option to buy or some other mechanism to both show rental income as well as deffer the sale until year(s) down the road.

This just means you'er here to educate and bring useful material to all members of the BP world.

So I would go and purchase the materials with them.

Bank Alternate programs are fairly painless if one of LLC members is a weak link credit wise.