However, when I tried to do it again, they (Fannie and Freddie) had altered their guidelines such that I could no longer qualify for a conventional investment property loan, even though I make $60K a year, live at home, and have no debt.

Let's see, you're rather new to this, you have a Realtor, the seller is in the RE business, telling you he doesn't have time for it, translation is that he knows more about it than you do, it could well be an overpriced dog, do your own due diligence, don't rely on a Realtor who gets paid to sell you the place.

You gain possession of the money, without having the bank in the middle of the process.For the record, 3% discount applied to a rent of $1030 translates to $999 :)

It just so happens that the 2% Rule typically translates to about 12% unleveraged return, which just so happens to be about what I look for. 

If you elect to be taxed as a sole proprietorship it does not remove LLC protection, except that a sole ownership is harder to avoid "piercing the veil" through alter-ego.

We will also set our payment schedule to be bi-weekly (or accelerated bi-weekly) which translates into 26 {smaller} payments per year rather than 12 monthly payments {which further reduces the overall interest paid}.These two small practices alone allow us to cut the effective amortization of our mortgages in-half during the first 5-year term with no *real* impact to our cash-flow.  

Funny how languages translate.

This would be expected since the law did not set out to amend or alter those definitions nor inferences based on those concepts.

Although we had a lot of interest, it didn't translate into offers.  

Once all this happens I will have to translate this to cost and informed them if:a.