I was very keen to purchase rental buy and hold property but after doing considerable research have reached the conclusion that the RE market is deep into the seller cycle nationwide and I am not sure now is the time to get in.

I think I've got a lender that'll do the loan (we've got a cashflow lender here in town who seems really keen to do commercial loans), but I'll need to come up with down payment of about $550k.

I've never been very keen on wasting time, but you make a good point about being able to manage the property the way that I see fit.

All that said, most commercial lenders  - other than credit unions - are not terribly keen on underwriting something as small as a 5-6 unit building (unless the deal is >1M - 2M $, they may not see it as worth their while).  

Im here on a B1/B2 visa and Im really keen to get into the property investment market here.

My income was shoddy for lack of a better word after the market tanked in 2008 as I've been in the building industry in some capacity since graduating from college, and while I certainly know I'm not alone in that, I'm also keenly aware of loan standards being far more strict than when I qualified for my original and also the refinance. - If I were to keep this little gem of a property (it's like the Giving Tree, I can't even believe I was so lucky to get it!)

I'll be honest I'm not to keen on what all LLC's do for you except protect your personal assets. 

With that money I need to buy our family home as my wife isn't keen on 'house hacking' (looking at 10% down for this), which will leave me with $50,000 to invest, armed with a newcomer's credit score and an equifax credit history from the UK.My goal, like most others, is to quit my job and get into this business full time.Regardless of the amount of research I put in, there is no clear road map with accurate numbers to fit my situation (ie.

If so ... we stopped that practice Years ago.... you meet with client one time in office or home and get them pre qualed ... you then set them up on top producer or what ever on line system you have that gives them e mail alerts for their target property.. we have them do the drive by's ( this eliminates the houses they don't like because of curb appeal etc) and in our market the buyers usually have all the school crime walk score etc etc done themselves ..We then show up and only show houses they are really keen on .. rarely show more than 2 or 3 before offer is written.. and NEVER drive them in our cars. 

So given that my broker has made good returns in the market over the last decade I am not so keen to park dead money here.