DIL is a slightly lesser hit than a foreclosure and you wont get a new loan for several years after. 

I have about $400K to deploy, but would prefer to buy several duplexes rather than 1 more expensive building.

Property values have been appreciating rapidly in recent years, and the city’s population has started growing again—a trend we haven’t seen in decades.I’m also based in California and have been investing in Detroit for several years, so I understand the concerns of out-of-state investing.

I have bought and sold several properties across Chicago and Barrington area over the past seven years, and was a real estate agent for 2 years in my early twenties.

There are several "real estate programs" out of their that the FTC made return millions to people. 

There were several mistakes made on my tax returns that I pointed out, which required going back and forth with their tax preparers, and asking repeatedly to cut to the chase and have a phone call.

Our first accepted offer was a 320 unit deal that we contracted, put up non-refundable (yeah, I know) earnest money, and thought we had our financing and money in place to do the deal.  2 weeks before closing a major (several million) partner pulled out leaving us short of the funds needed to close. 

The PM owns the listing, and for several important reasons. 

To clarify, I have been studying real estate for several years, but have been otherwise engaged in operating  other businesses that my wife and I both own, both as CFO and CEO roles.

An LLC doesn't make a difference in your federal taxes or what you can deduct.What you want to do is technically possible, but there are several hurdles.