In short the creative finance world is a way to buy property without going to a bank. 

I will provide a packet as I would a bank to show my income and credit which is very very strong.  

So I guess not technically a closing just a nice wire into our bank account. 

From there you will narrow down your search, the bank will impose a price limit.

Also if you have a bank that will lend with a 30 year Am on a commercial property let me know....

This means keeping corporate records, following corporate law, having separate bank accounts, not co-mingingly funds/property, etc.

My first question is, how is the bank going to know that it's now an investment property?

Some banks won't accept it though.  

So if you're truly playing catch up on retirement, you have your precious capital in two buckets:a) equity in the house earning 4% onlyb) REI earning 10% +Then, it's the same argument on prepaying the mortgage ....you're sending a couple hundred dollars to the bank to avoid 4% interest.

I use Ally financial for my rental checking and rental reserve account, about the best interest rates you'll find for FDIC insured bank accounts.