And of course making a quicker financial gain would be a nice start but I do 100% ultimately want to own income properties. 

It's the starting point to becoming financially free, and out of the "rat race". 

The owner could sell the property with you signing a promissory note and record a mortgage to protect their interest.

In my CPA practice I got very used to clients disclosing the most intimate details of their financial life to me, and the public's attitude towards realtors is surprising and upsetting.

I would like to start keeping books on my properties vs having their financial information buried in my personal finances.My questions for the community:1) If my goal is to eventually seek financing from others and therefore I will need P&L Statements and other reports on my properties, what software should I use - Quickbooks, Buildium, etc?

They will become targets for this everywhere in the city.Utah legislature removed protections from squatters and we can now have them removed as trespassers where previously they were more like tenants at will.I don't own any properties in West Ogden.  

Also, for economic purposes, by placing home in LLC (a business), children will be elgible for more college financial aid since the business assets for a closely held company with few employees are exempt/not counted under federal financial aid laws but are counted when it is our personal name.  

You can protect yourself by running tenant screening as well as ask references from last landlord.

In most cases taking a loan out of your 401k is not a wise financial choice. 

I do have other significant assets I want to protect, so I know I want to go the LLC direction.