I thought what if I offered to pay him 20K for the property up front and in addition, I could work off the remaining balance by providing x amount of hours of labor over the next 2 landscaping seasons. 

I only buy SMFR and have been focusing in Idaho, but recently it is getting more difficult to find great deals as more people have flocked to ID over the last few years.

Focusing on cash flow is super important but it has to be balanced by looking at the potential for total returns. 

It can be very difficult for self employed and small business owners to finance a home because their taxes do not always show a lot of traditional income.

Building on Omar's good advice, I would say it is more difficult to succeed in investing without a game plan in mind.

Just send the info every year with your tenants Info - nothing difficult about that.

The balance on the loan is $58k, and the value is approximately $90-$95k.

It's probably just psychology @Jay Helms, but knowing friends/family in a different context other than investing/business is difficult for me because of that relationship where money and investing isn't talked about as much.

Other than it being a additional cost to do business and financing being more difficult under a LLC as long as you have adequate insurance coverage there is little other difference. 

I do not want to get commercial loans because I have heard on here that it is alot more difficult to get a loan through and LLC for example when compared to a personal loan.