After my wife and I closed on the house, my brother and our mother would give us his portion of the down payment as a non-taxable gift (both gifts under $14K limit per giftor) with the intention that we would transfer ownership of the house to a LLC owned by all three of us.

Excellent credit, enough for down payment, but student loans have slaughtered my debt to income ratio.Could I finance an investment property by claiming that my intention is to live there, and then pretend to live there for several years?

I am not sure what you intend to accomplish with the logo or what its best intentioned intent is so I hush now.

You did a preconstruction deal with a realtor/builder and intended on the selling or renting at completion with the intent that you would have a house valued higher that what you paid for it.

I've been honest with my intent as I do not want any problems should the bank discover my true use of the funds.

I know there are lots of people with good intentions suggesting you get rental property.

Hopefully 'it' won't be a problem for you.Since the sellers don't depend financially on the proceeds from the sale, seller financing appeals the most as it's one less bank loan of limited numbers, so you can continue with buy and holding via traditional methods in the future.Finally, you didn't make clear your intentions for the property...

The determining factor in all of it is: What is the intent of the investor when entering the contract?

My intention is to reach out to distressed owners to offer them solutions with their properties while finding a deal that works for me.

These are issues unlicensed brokers can get into when entering into contracts with no ability or intention of closing.