When you say a man in debt is a slave, are you referring to debt used for personal items, or are you including debt used to acquire income producing or capital appreciating assets also?  

Would love to take a look at your situation and find the most advantageous way for you to starting acquiring properties.

Perhaps the conventional 5% down, but since I am self-employed and write everything off, I am being told that I would still need to put down 20% and provide a year's worth of bank statements to satisfy the underwriter.My question for the community is: does anyone have any ideas on how I might structure my first deal to acquire property number one?

Interest only on 30 products used to be decent but now for what you save in the interest only period you really pay the price later when that period ends.If you are getting under value by 30%, then a plain FRM should work fine. 

There may be some products available through a brokerage that requires less, but you may need to do a little digging. 

Not a fan of loan guarantor fees in general.Sponsors track record in these types deals across multiple economic cycles (when I see these types of deals, I mean acquiring new construction multifamily in the area)I am sure if I saw the deck, I would have at least a dozen more questions.  

Example - could you increase ash flow by acquiring a SFH near a college campus but charge rent by the room?

I agree that tariffs can be justified against certain countries like china on specific products where their govt is clearly subsidizing the manufacture of those goods and dumping the products to try to run the competition into the ground.That being said. 

It might be a good idea to look into what tech related companies are emerging with real estate-related products.

I would suggest you use a different non-qm loan product that allows for family members to occupy but doesn't require you to make it a primary residence.