Hello Everyone, I am new to the world of real estate investing and my expertise mostly consist of a lot of research and trying to figure out all the puzzle pieces to getting your first deal secured and closed.

Any one in this business that has Property Radar in their market I highly suggest you check it out.. falling for all those super secret lists of motivated Sellers that I see people on BP chase is puzzling to me when you have Property Radar which is that and so much more. .. you create the list in a matter of hours and then dial in.. this is for real not just buying some list of rehashed information. 

It seems a bit puzzling why you would list the LLC as the trustee.

When you live in California, skipping the 1031 means at 35%-40% total tax bill when you include state taxes and depreciation recapture, so it becomes a real cost-benefit puzzle to cash out.

@Louis Grigoletti 640 credit score is just a piece of the puzzle, they also look at your debt to income (big portion of it), as well as diving in to what makes up your credit score (credit history, etc).

Either there's missing info in your post, or there's a piece of the puzzle that you still need to put together.

I have a good grasp of the numbers, evaluating deals, and I have many of the pieces of the puzzle in place in my brain.

Specifically the Waco, TX area.I'm getting all the pieces of the puzzle put together like Property manager, narrow down the area, contractors, etc. but the final piece of the puzzle that I'm looking to get advice on is how to fund this first deal.The type of house I'm looking to purchase and think I can acquire is purchasing a house for around $35k-40k with rehab costs of $10k-15k so i can be all in at around $50-55k.

Based on commonsensical inclination I would think this is conservative and appropriate.But absolutely I agree the sponsor is the one putting the deal together, and therefore the most important piece of the puzzle. 

He also said he was doing the seller financing as a favor and not an investment, which puzzled me.2.