No Guarantee what I suggested will avoid them calling you out on it, but anything less than that will probably guarantee it will be an issue.

The 6 month waiting period is typical and may actually be a law. 

Do not call registry gives a grace period if they initiated contact.

The situations get changed over the period of time and you might get the home that you have always wanted.

You have to define your exit strategy and hold period per purchase.

Has anyone calculated the cost of setting up LLCs (setup fee + annual fees + extra CPA costs, etc) out to 10 year period.Could that money saved during 10 year period be used for better umbrella insurance?

I did not intend to charge a fee but in our contract COULD have kept the deposit because the 12 month rental period was not satisfied.  

You sounded like Barney Zick  or Jack Miller or Jimmy Napier or Peter Fortunato...KISS Keep it simple or starve or KISF Keep it simple or failWhere my mentors back in the mid-80s taught  to me about" a what if statement" which helps you understand how the sellers thinking, and what I like to do is show them the option of selling with an agent versus renting it out versus selling to me on termsIt's important to feel out the seller and say something like, "I don't know if I can do this and I would need to talk it over with my business partner, but what if I could get you a cash flow to you for a period of time and then pay off whatever I owed you,  would that be something to even think about or maybe not?"

@Jack RengoldDon't start with a war zone property, period.  

Lots of bad things can happen and if you do not have the experience or financially abilities to ride out an expensive hold period, you will not come out looking pretty.