And what if the stock market crashes? 

Right now I'm the owner of a successful used/refurbished appliance business, and I'm also an investor in paper assets such as stocks, bonds & mutual funds (that have low expenses and therefore are not the kinds of paper assets that should be avoided). 

I think he is moody because he is heavily into stocks/bonds and the traditional way of work until you've "earned" retirement.

Supposedly stocks yield 12% each year on average.That said, all investing is also a negotiation.

If you are dead set on finding money for that deal...you simply need to hit the pavement and talk to everyone you know!

My wife and I have excellent credit and a significant amount of $ in cash / liquid investments but rather than trigger tax gains by selling stocks, I was hoping to find a hard money lender for the purchase.

Now that is dead, I went back to working almost entirely for conventional Sellers.  

Seems to me regardless of what the stock market does(look at last week) real estate is always going to provide cash flow for me.  

Yes you are dead on. 

Personally I don't get it - I thought placing investment properties in LLC's was a stock standard business practice in Real Estate, so why is Wells Fargo getting so obstructive about it - does it leave them exposed somehow?