I like your idea of covering my bases by having it listed and also exploring renting it out at the same time.

It just depends on what your plan it and whether you have a solid plan in place for lead generation, marketing, lead conversation, etc...I think it can be a good time to start exploring different options and learning more about what it takes to be a realtor and how it might be able to help you in your long term goals.

As the local Los Angeles market has a higher than the national average barrier to entry on real estate, I started to explore options outside of California.

If the typical bank mortgage is difficult during these times, I wish to explore the option of seller financing. 

Right now exploring Las Vegas (primarily) and Miami.  

It seems like a non issue to me, there are hundreds of other houses around the lake that likely have the same reservation:Reservations and exceptions contained in deed from Northern Pacific Railroad Company:Reserving and excepting from said lands so much or such portions thereof as are or may be minerallands or contain coal or iron, and also the use and the right and title to the use of such surface ground asmay be necessary for ground operations and the right of access to such reserved and excepted minerallands, including lands containing coal or iron, for the purpose of exploring, developing and working thesame.

I've been talking to more lenders in the last few weeks than in the last couple years combined... but we have found a few with not-too-unreasonable terms, and we're exploring ways to use private capital for short-term bridge loans and then refi those into conventional loans. 

i have used legal zoom and incfile both are pretty good. and yes formal 50-50 agreement based on mutual understanding. we have business account (joint) where all the rents come in and all the expense are paid out - we use that as single channel for our year end taxing - as we grow the # of units things are getting tricky so we started using STESSA - still exploring

They start to explore options and look into things to find solutions.

I am currently in Cleveland and mostly focused in Cleveland but would like to gain more knowledge of the Toledo market and begin exploring more in depth.