Quote from @Marshall Robins: We can go up to 50% LTV as a private lender for what it's worth.

Hey Bigger Pockets community, I'm just starting out in Step 1 (get educated) on what I want to become a successful career in real estate investment.I also currently run an e-commerce business that is currently completely online, but would benefit from having a brick & mortar storefront, and I had an idea that maybe using the investment capital I'm looking to allocate into real estate into a commercial property my business can operate out of until I decide to sell the property in or rent it out to another business.I am obviously very naive when it comes to the complexity of any good real estate deal (especially commercial VS residential), but I'm hoping to spend as much time learning from everyone here who is on their journey as well.My main concern with the idea of buying commercial to operate my business out of it that I might struggle to rent it out afterwards and that there may likely be depreciation in the commercial real estate market over the next 5 years.I understand there is a lot of nuance depending on the local market but I'm guessing commercial is even less of a "safe" bet than finding a solid residential deal to leverage in some way.

.: Hi All,Is there any way to structure a private lending arrangement so that income is considered passive (by IRS standards) and can offset accumulated schedule E losses?

Otherwise, rent-by-room is probably your best bet.

Searching online for terms such as “real estate investment firms”, “real estate syndicators”, “real estate private equity” and most likely about a dozen or more other search terms should reveal the websites of many syndication sponsors.News Articles.

But maybe its worth it if you don't have a place to get hard/private money for deals. 

I'm 25k out of pocket for permits and clearing.I bet the pre-permitted 10 contiguous lots on the river would appraise for at least 150k.Am i being overly optimistic?

You are betting too much on the refinance portion if you try to BRRRR with hard money.

That is perfectly fine, stick to REI exposure via private lending, O etf, maybe syndications, and be largely invested in domestic & intl equities. 

Our private money lender on this flip was very reasonable through this whole process, as we had to navigate many gray areas and difficult decisions.