There is also a much larger inventory of rentals for a prospective resident to look at, a few years back we were in the 3ks for vacants and this year bumping up near 5k during the peak season (in my opinion probably due to the low entry price point for investors compared to the rest of the country as well as low interest rates on loans for folks moving out of their homes).

This would allow you to reinvest into a larger property such as a duplex, or even multiple properties in areas with a larger growth and cash flow potential. 

I love local banks, but you will do better with something larger with more options.

Most SMLLCs are basic but syndicates, funds and larger businesses have complexity

I am not in the red or anything overall, just have a few payments all over the place so was just trying to put them under one umbrella instead to make a larger payment instead of 4 different ones. 

Although my income is great for my first job out of college, I've talked to a couple lenders in Salt Lake City and got the feeling my salary (~85k) will not be enough without bringing a larger (~20%) downpayment.

The end goal is to have a larger multifamily in an LLC name.

These loans are often found primarily in larger commercial real estate and is a very specific loan product. 

that will also open up a larger tenant pool.

Upon further inspection, I quickly recognized that the times they were allocating for various tasks were grossly overexaggerated.