I retain the option of paying down the mortgage or eliminating it altogether.

I suppose you could remove the window units altogether and state "AC is not provided".

I'm wondering if any investors who started out as DIY'ers on their first properties (or all) pursued a builders license, did the work off the record or perhaps have any insight into the thought altogether? 

From my experience I can tell you to take the long distance advice with a grain of salt but don't give up on long distance investing altogether. 

If your aim is to succeed in this business, you will avoid that notion altogether. 

Are you talking about building a business entity for your own personal investing, or are you suggesting something else altogether?

I own several residential multi families and I will soon have to get more properties through commercial lending, what's the best advice in how to restructure residential properties for example under an LLC altogether to get non commercial lending? 

It took my parents 1 condo investment to swear them off altogether.

Some lenders have stopped lending against condos altogether.

The key, I think, is to actually stay away from the "classic" REI keyword portfolio and look for cheaper ways to get in front of the same audience.Typically, we'll do this by prioritizing the most profitable keywords in phrase match variations, avoiding exact match altogether (broad is still too broad in most markets, though it's probably worth a test in a market like yours).Another key is going to be finding the place at which you can affordably compete - NOT going after the top positions because that's what everyone else is doing.We find that the top spots in MANY markets are actually not worth the increase in cost - and that you can actually do more deals by targeting position 2, 3, etc.