Then there were some issues with the inspection report that ruined 3 contracts prior to me getting involved.

Thanks in advance, IrisHi Iris,I ended up transferring ownership to the LLC and didn't have any issues.

Since the properties are in New York you have a few extra steps you need to do to keep all of your funds out of NYs hands at closing.Here's an interesting BP thread on the South Carolina property tax issue you mentioned. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/725/topics/604427-south.... 

Be prepared to face fluctuations in the market, unexpected repairs, and tenant issues.

We also require that we be added to the contractor's insurance as Additionally Insured, so we're covered if they cause damage or liability issue.3) If the property is occupied:- One of our people MUST accompany their person (and we charge for this). --- We were sued many years ago, along with the owner, because tenant claimed owner's contractor sexually assaulted them!

There exists those of us that want a property in Costa Rica despite the issues we are discussing here.

There are two types of return from a rental propertyCash Flow & Appreciation.I normally also aim for a minimum of 8% return between Cash-Flow and Appreciation.Appreication, nationally, is around 2% to 3% annually.Therefore, your goal is to get the cash-flow to be about 5% to 6%.The issue is interest rates being very high, you would therefore, need to buy at a pricepoint where the numbers still make sense.You can always put down more of a downpayment to cash flow, but that will impact your cash on cash return calculations.Best of luck!

There i a bit of research that needs to be completed early on in order to get a good judgement on the feasibility of this; from there, the "Official" way to ensure you could pursue this would be to request a "Zoning Opinion Letter" to receive an Official decision from the Department of Zoning in order to ensure this will not cause any issues during your permit review. 

I want to ensure that the structure of these investments I am working on correctly address key issues for investors. 

I would suggest doing these separately however since you will run into issues with a partial release clause on a blanket loan.