I did a deep dive into TC last night and it seems like a very robust platform and much more customizable than Buildium.

@Blake Dismang Before you dive in, it's best to learn your market first.

Looks like I’ll need to dig deeper regarding the mixed use building and other ways to protect myself.

Hello @Raymond Santos,Sounds like you're ready to dive into your first rental property.The first steps would be to find an investor-friendly Lender and Realtor.Your lender can pre-approve you by collecting recent financial documents - tax returns, bank statements, paystubs, credit report.

Not everyone wants to mentor but I noticed those that do get much more in return such as deeper knowledge and understanding, increased experience and connections.

That's awesome @Graham Bollinger and kudos to you for skipping the clock punching and diving straight into RE so quickly.  

Find an income producing asset and let it fund your life first before deep diving into debt. 

I agree it's the lender you went with- either doesn't know, has rigid overlays, or didn't tell you something. 50 back end ratio is not the sharp end of the high dive, they could reduce rate and increase points, increase deductable on insurance and skinny down the costs.

The best way to explaining this is for you to download an IRR calculator spreadsheet or build your own simple one and play around with one.For what its worth most deals I deem meeting minimal IRR standards is 13-15% but you have to dig a little deeper to uncover the real placements of cashflows and capitalization events... and then dig even deeper to verify the assumptions such as occupancy, rent increases per year, and what reversion cap rate was used.Again I don't look for IRR cause its manipulated a lot instead I look at total return on a 5 year basis.

Also, forming an LLC gives you the benefit of pass-through taxation.Here is a BP blog that gives you a deeper dive of the pros and cons: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-llc-not-best-option