<-- income capped, meaning middle class and modest income only, but HUGE for those below the threshold.Mortgage interest deduction.Property tax deduction.Being able to write-off maintenance/repairs on your rental properties.For Californians, Prop 13 is a huge boon to buy-and-hold REI.There's a reason that entire books, intended for the middle class and others that aren't paying $10k/yr for CPA services, have literally been written about how to maximize tax goodies associated with owning real estate. 

oh and THANK YOU for your service.

2) Is it possible to use these small amounts as a down payment on rental properties and get loans or other funding for the rest?

However, I went to the first meeting and the main speaker was an out-of-town guy giving a super high-pressure sales job for some MLM program called "Financial Education Services Protection", which didn't actually have anything to do with real estate, other than he was pitching us to pressure credit challenged prospects into buying this (my opinion) predatory program.

If you have an FHA residential loan you need to occupy one of the units and can rent out the rest.

I'm looking to switch my service any advice on which one I should use 

Do i have to take on rest of 6 section 8 tenants?

I know about the services Costar offers, but I'm wondering who or where typically has this information on hand locally?

@Eric TomlinUnless you have other non-traditional investments in mind, the checkbook control provided by an IRA LLC would be more tool than you likely require.Check out Kingdom Trust Co or IRA Services Trust Co.  

Would the bank be able to forgive the rest of the loan on the property after the sizable payoff amount?