Our business plan actually includes rehabbing distressed properties and conducting off-market transactions with owners currently occupying distressed properties using equity to reduce the out of pocket costs for the seller/buyer and to simplify the process.

Defense was just something like I just wanted to buy a part of San Francisco for cheap, I wasn't planning to do anything sinister.   

As lenders, well issue a prequal/preapproval letter if we've analyzed your income, assets (bank and brokerage statements to establish that you have the liquidity to afford the down payment, closing costs, and reserves), review credit of the guarantors, review the relevant experience to ensure that we're not throwing our money away on newbies that are wandering around in the dark, and have put together a reasonable plan of attack for the project.

Where I am looking for guidance is we plan on using a larger down payment of at least 50% to be on the conservative side of leverage.

Looks to me there isn't a lot of room for creativity in SLC based on my understanding of Zoning and Planning. 

At times I questioned whether the buyer would have money left over to purchase their next meal, even with the 5-6% seller assist.

I definitely plan too  

If you plan to do the work yourself, then that is where is becomes less clear especially if a buyer feels you did a less than 100% professional job.

That’s a good plan. 1031 is a bit complicated but you can continue to roll cost segregation benefits forward  

However it is important to remember to make sure you have a plan to pay that loan down and not allow that credit card debt to climb back up.