I'm currently looking at adding a restaurant to the portfolio, which includes the real estate.

Any out of state folks having luck adding to their portfolio taking the non-turnkey route? 

I was turned off by the approach, style, and even more importantly that the solution suggested was not correct for my situation and the rationale for it contained factual errors for my situation.

As they've owned the home for 20 years and owe $350K on a home now worth $430K, that isn't a lot of equity and is a large balance on the mortgage.

Now, investors can also buy on the high end and improve the home by adding a bathroom, taking a wall out and expanding a kitchen/living area, etc to be able to sell at a profit (a little harder idea to make profit but possible).  

Quick rundown of the numbers:Purchase: $130,000  Mortgage and escrow: $1045 Total Expenses: $1195Rent: $1500Total cashflow: $305Primary issue right now is a 2 year buy back term for a DSCR loan that does have a large penalty for that first 2 years. 

Can anyone tell me what I should look for when I want to buy commercial an apartments contained of 5 units or more?

You determine the probabilities from the statistics of a large data set … 200 flips in the example.Once you have done 200 rental units you can determine the EV going forward.Not a very satisfactory answer I know.

Other than adding costs, complexity and wasting time what’s the purpose of transferring to the LLC?

From there its really dependent on the language in the sales agreement.....Does the sales agreement contain a liquidated damages clause?