and it has to be arms length I could be wrong but I have two w 2 s on my payroll so we have a group policy.. its a huge differnce. 

*We already have someone we use exclusively so we would set him up with insurance and add him to payroll.

You will want a company that buys them, manages them and has people on their payroll to fix them if you intend to be mostly hands off.

If you are a "sophisticated" investor and make some contacts, you do not need to be accredited to participate in certain syndications.Not sure how much you are looking to invest, but most syndications require a $50k or $100k min and most people who have that liquidity also tend to be accredited.

WE have had ONE sophisticated buyer who wanted to represent himself.. but he had a back ground In building and real estate.She also just closed another rehabber we did in PDX .. closed today and that buyer represented themselves.. it was a 1031 .. but generally 95% of people at least home buyers for resi purposes still need help.. they are not up to speed.now I can see a big difference in the investment end..

These are experienced, sophisticated RE investors.  

They don't know the landscape but have 15 analytical spread sheets, sophisticated cap rate algorithms  and  every guru's investing handbook in their library.

The S corp doesn't really offer any legal protection (not an attorney, so please check) and just creates the payroll issue you identified.  

Good point Pavel, The multi family buyers I have run into are overall much more sophisticated than the SFR buyers. 

They tend to be sophisticated buyers.To clarify,  any earnest money deposit you put down is applied to the sale price.