Not defending just saying this is not that uncommon.. although these are his core business so you would think they would get more attention.The period in question was likely around 1 year, and is uncommon to continue to collect investor funds in an entity that doesn't/didn't exist at that moment.

Does what you want exist?

black top the driveway and trim the existing landscaping and paint the exterior and it will look great 

Similar to writing goals down to bring them into reality, writing an offer down and getting it in front of a seller is vastly more effective then an imaginary, non-existent offer you're asking them to consider.

After the Great Recession, he could have moved part of his money to real estate to take advantage but he didn't because he understood that it was a temporary and abnormal situation and not a base to change his business model.So, finally, let's see if US real estate is the right basked to invest in, if one such basket exists.

Maybe a loan from bank exists for this?

We focus on year leases and sometimes allow existing long term tenants to do shorter renewals if they're nearing the end of tenancy and moving or what not.   

Could there be a random lender that might find a way to get you 100% LTV at purchase, maybe, but I would assume those lenders are a) almost impossible to find, if they exist at all and b) the loan would be so expensive, that even the DSCR calculation would limit your proceeds to a point that you would still need equity in the deal.What would likely be a better route to look into is: an equity partner for your down payments.  

I've heard it's possible to move an existing home from our personal names to an LLC, but I've also heard that will result in the bank calling the loan. 

I would assume that some version of these three zones exist in OC and it might be worth looking into where yours falls before settling on a STR vs LTR strategy.