You would then have two loans, one on your home and one on the refi to access the equity on the investment home.Why not just use the refi cash out from your home loan for future deals? 

As Hai mentioned in BC there are a couple of extra things to factor in if your parents sell it to you-the capital gains, foreign buyer's tax AND the property transfer tax all apply in BC and the middle one is not cheap (an extra 15%). 

The ATR does not have to be the same on every deal.

Not to mention a lot of the deals that are not even deals to begin while the fee is the amount above for something that is 500k-700k.  

There are good deals in all of them

The cheap one will probably last 6-12 years.

I want to set up an LLC for the NY property am am wondering if I can just use a new NJ LLC (cheap easy set up and I can be the Registered agent since I live in NJ) versus having to create an LLC in NY.   

The Detroit market is cheap and on fire right now.

I also wouldn't touch hilltop with a 10' pole. struggled. old homes, over budget renovations, lots of issues. realtors push people here since it's the only place cheap houses close to downtown can be good but homes are 1900-1920.

It sounds like you could have a promising deal, so lean on your experienced agent for guidance and go take action!