I started exactly how I am stating, and flipped a contract for 20k in 3 weeks, that got my juices going.

They are trying to juice you for more. 

My only recommendation is to work with a broker who is familiar with these loan types. i know a lot of loan officers who were primarily A-paper or refi-focused are slowing down business-wise and starting to get into this field to keep their pipelines and bellies full. 

Otherwise your juice is not worth the squeeze for an attorney.But you do have several layers of asset protection, before you get to the whole LLC held in a Delaware Trust thing:1.) maintain your property, make sure it's safe and well maintained2.) pick good tenants3.) make sure you treat your tenants professionally (don't give them a legitimate reason to hate you!)

Since these were off-market, the down payments were usually only 10% and the prices were belly to belly. 

Get a contractor who is licensed and knows the planning desk guys belly to belly.

Guess the old question goes "is the juice worth the squeeze"? 

The reason you haven't closed on a deal this month, is because you are committed to closing a deal this month and not Committed to cold calling 10 MLS listings every day for the next month.The reason you can't get rid of that stubborn belly fat, is because you are committed to loosing belly fat and not committed to running 3 miles a day.Essentially, my epiphany is nothing short of this.Focus on the process and the results will come.

It's always great to save people money, but sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze.In addition, you'd have a challenge with our State Division of Real Estate, because what you're describing is exactly how a real estate agent gets paid.  

Some may disagree with this and say that they can manage the risk in such a way that more debt equals less risk, but history is full of examples of those that thought they could outsmart the risk and went belly up when a downturn proved otherwise, so I respectfully disagree and state instead that one should assume that there is no free lunch when it comes to debt or anything else.Some practical examples of using debt to manage risk level ... when I was young, single, and without kids, I was more focused on growing my portfolio and had a larger appetite and capacity to take on risk.