I ended up attending one of those weekend seminars for a few hundred bucks that tries to sell you on a 30k coaching program.

If you are worried about transition from Canada to US you can use a DSCR loan program. 

It really is a minefield out there.I know everyone likes the convenience of the web, and they are tired of hearing it, but this really is a business based on relationships, not online anonymity.

It would likely be comparable to what you pay in the NE.Just google "Lexington County tax estimator" or whatever county you're interested in and you'll usually find a web tool from the County you can use to estimate the tax bill based on the previous year's assessments.There is also a law called the ATI tax exemption that can potentially lower than 6% rate by 25%.

I am a smaller Main Street Type investor and have created/manufactured SFR notes as part of my fix-n-flip program for many years.

If you Bank/Lender does not allow it you can refinace the mortgage into a DSCR or true Portfolio loan program. 

You can program individual access codes to work only during a certain time frame.

Some programs will do the full LTV that a long term rental would have and some lenders will reduce the LTV by 5%.

I am looking to join a mentorship program to help lower my learning curve and until I find it, I am educating myself with books, as well as YouTube University and great advice from the BiggerPockets community.I do work full-time in a career that I love and is very rewarding, but I also know I won't attain my goals with my current job.

There are programs to find solds so that would be a good idea but an agent can pull directly from the MLS.