Most cities require a business license and some require special approval for a home based business.

Unless you are doing any kind of special you might ought to borrow money from someone who lends you enough for the purchase and the repairs/rehab expense. 

We need to purchase a property in the N Charleston SC area and want real estate agent who specializes in income producing property in the area.

@Geoff Cavender All the answers you are looking for are already here on BP - you should read these:How to Effectively Conduct Joint Venture Agreements as a Real Estate Investorhow-do-i-properly-construct-a-purchase-with-a-partnershipcreate-an-llc-for-first-partnership-best-way-to-do-sotaking-on-partner-s-and-limiting-our-liabilitesIf you still have unanswered questions after that, you need specialized help - talk with @Scott Smith.

It's easier to systematize investor relations with commercial real estate where much of the communication is a similar message to hundreds or thousands of investors...than it is for a 3rd party PM to communicate disparate information with the same number of individual investors. 

We used a lawyer that specialize in retirement account investing to make sure to do it 'right'. 

I'm living in New Hampshire seacoast area and looking for a lawyer specializing in real estate.

(warning: this is not endorsement for Morris Invest, but the message is still worth watching)So, what do others like to do, pay it off, or ride the mortgage wave?

I don’t know if they are quite that good jay .. you must be thinking of a Clayton Morris special ! 

A condo is similar to a house but with a lot less control over the investment:The HOA can hit you with "special assessment" fees whenever they want to make a large repair, hurting your cash flow.