I'd be interested in hearing more about your experiences and approach and happy to share mine. 

I've been a landlord in Portland for a few years and I'm also an interior designer.

Well as I am approaching the next phase of my CRE journey I  was wondering if you could give some feedback on a broker package.

The best thing is to buy into house appreciation when you see it coming as a massive wave while ensuring that you can surf the wave on your board.For some, that means been cash flow positive going to the deal (safer and conservative approach)For other, it is acknowledging that you would be out of pocket every month until you sell the asset, which is OK... but that is not a scalable strategy

My client had approached me about possibly buying the property, but I was too young at the time, and didn't really understand how everything worked. 

Background information.  There is a very much vacant property in my town that no one has been to in years.  I looked up the owner it seems as if it's a little complicated.  Man and woman own it, however the woman pass...

How do I approach as a buyer once I have an HML backing me?

I'm curious to hear what others say but if someone approached me with that request I'd dig my heels in as hard as I could.

Let me preface this by noting that any of the individuals I would approach would be people I know quite well as I've established business relationships with them over many years at my current place of employment (since they know where I work, they can be assured I'm not going to run away with their money).

For a more passive approach but still with potential tax benefits of long term ownership I would probably invest in an outstanding sponsor's syndication or NNN commercial leases.However, if the only capital I had was borrowed from my home, I would address that issue.