I work with mainly buy and hold investors here in Cincinnati.

This is mainly how we find buyers to offload our learnkey properties too.

(particularly true for single family homes)  Tom and Aaron may have different experiences.  

In doing so, bear in mind that the cost and admin of a corporation is higher and that the tax treatment is different:1.

Does it make any difference that my wife’s mother which is the executive of the estate only owns 50% of the property we want to acquire?

In talks on four different properties. 

Hard money lenders have a good amount of flex when it comes to FICO score and typically the main issue that borrowers with low FICO's have is that their max loan size gets cut which doesn't seem to be an issue here.

Although as @Drew Sygit asks, what have those PMs that pledged to do it better now learned that may bring them back into line with main stream service providers? 

I’m still learning myself, but I’ve found that connecting with other investors and figuring out which areas of the market to focus on (like distressed properties or foreclosures) can make all the difference.Are you currently looking to jump back into investing, or are you exploring different strategies at this point?

Given you and your investor both have experience in different areas, I’d say keep a flexible approach and compare city requirements before putting too much money down.