Unless you're going to owner-occupy one of these upstate or out of state properties, you'll need 20% down (+ closing costs) in many cases.

@James Ohliger what an owner is really doing when hiring a PMC is buying their expertise and time.You can think of expertise cost as a relatively fixed cost.

What is wrong with this website is the majority of people on this site have no idea how to evaluate risk.When you have 25 year old hot shots trying to brag about how easy real estate is only to see them go crying to mommy in five years when they are completely underwater and are like "oh me" - ask me how I know.

A good one is sourcing deals off-market with other agents or other home owners.

They only take 10% and list on all major sites for free.

My plan was to acquire a property through owner financing, and find someone whose goals align with what I'm trying to accomplish and have them cover the down payment.

If I'm understanding correctly, you'd be the new owner of the home as long as the house appraises for $300k.

Part of the space would be used by the owner/operator for his business (I am an investor in his business) and we would lease out the other space. 

market sure is site specific.. bird in the hand though grab your best deal and move on.. there are always more deals for those in the bizz.. its not that hot out our way but we have 17 house's pending in our development all in the last 90 days when the preceding 4 months we sold maybe 3.. 

I’d recommend connecting with other owners in the area (Facebook groups for great).