One thing that we struggle with our current situation is the ability to visit our close families as frequently as we would like to.

@Brandon Hall correct me if I'm wrong, but for the 2018 and beyond tax years, the LLC now does make a difference, as it could be subject to additional pass through taxation reduction- as well as needing to make a choice on how the deduct mortgage interest.

Even if you create a non-CA LLC, if you are managing the business from California, you will be deemed to be "doing business" in California and therefore subject to CA taxes.

What are some suggestions to locate and market subject to, owner/seller financed, or pre-foreclosure deals?

@Corinna Gossner , You should not be putting the Triplex in the S-corp for so many reasons that you can read on other posts.The rental income is not subject to SE tax no matter where it comes from ( LLC or Scorp).Both LLCs and S-corp is a pass-through entity, this loss flow to you the same way and carried forward.

But I guess this is subjective to the individual wholesaler themselves, shady ones don't care much about the seller, or know about the market, good ones want them to get the most they can get and know what that is. 

I could be wrong, but of course, consulting your accountant/tax strategist may shed some additional light on the subject.

When I sold my house, I accepted an all-cash offer with a 10-day escrow (DEFINITE money) rather than a subject-to-financing offer with a 30-day escrow (MAYBE money).Because I sold in a hot market (San Francisco Bay Area), all of my best offers were cash, but I didn't accept the highest cash offer because there were red flags my realtor pointed out.

If there's a hole, it may be a red flag.b) sensitivity analysis: I examine all the assumptions, and make sure I can live with the worst case scenarios.c) "Stall and see": if they are getting money over multiple years, and there is no penalty for investing later, I would usually wait so I get some real performance data, versus having to look at theoretical pro forma information.d) Recession stress test: I will not invest in anything, until I subject it to recession level stress and see if I can live with the result.

Profit sharing plan can shield around 60k of income. 3) Hopefully, you/brother also have IRA and HSA to decrease your AGI. 4) You can lease the property to your corp allowing withdrawal of cash from the business that is not subject to FICA (rather than paying yourself a compensation).