And of course we're in agreement on consulting a tax pro.

The US Government and the States have but one way to deal with this, taxes.

Despite the equity We also want to take advantage of tax advantages we did stay in the property for 2 years !  

To navigate the nuance in the laws properly for compliance and to accurately structure our LLC, I am looking to consult with an attorney who knows immigration + business + tax laws. 

- Look into if property taxes are reassessed after purchase.

Be sure to hold a hefty reserve to handle on-going maintenance, capex, taxes, and insurance.

You get to harvest the equity tax free.

There are two reasons this is a bad idea.Investing with an SDIRA (assuming it is not a Roth) will often result in paying significantly more taxes. 

Focus on absentee owners and start with the ones who live the farthest away and only own one property in the area since they have the least use for the property.You can also drive for dollars, looking for anomalies of disrepair and then look them up in the tax records and use a site like Spokeo to do cheap skip tracing.

Rentals generate passive income, so an S-Corp offers no added tax benefit.