And the "hook" is that it's paying 12%+ interest distribution plus depending amount LOANED (one may say invested in a note but again, if a note is a loan, it's not investing is it, it's a loan, a loan is a loan is a loan). 

Nathan I think this is true if your just talking about rental props for landlording.. the last 2 to 3 years have been the best years of my career.. building new builds and Loaning our funds.

You could look into doing a vacation home loan.

Buy a 2-4 unit property with an FHA loan (3.5% down), live in one unit, and rent out the others.

Focus on one task at a time, like getting pre-approved for a loan or analyzing a few deals in your target area.

I would recommend shadowing a few loan brokers for the first 3 months being newly licensed. 

But the shopping centers, most all of them have defaulted on their loans in our area. 

DSCR is an investment loan 

What type of loan products would be available for an LLC buying a house?

Fires in the mountains is nothing new, as a young student in the 1970"s I would be returning from classes and the hills would be ablaze for days.