Today that small business with 3 employee/owners has turned into a sizeable Note Investment Fund with a staff of 30+ and counting.

I run a very large PM company ($50M+ portfolio, 60+ employees) & we wouldn't even take on a property that was that far away from our operation.

I have some great plumbing and electrical subs otherwise my own employees do the work. 

Hello, Bigger Pockets Family,I am a new investor, and I'm trying to get pre-qualified for a mortgage, preferably FHA cause those have the lowest down payments, and also tend to have a lower interest rate, and cash on cash return is important in my investment strategy.I am a contract employee so I receive a 1099 instead of a W2, the bank I went to Provident Bank,  will only lend to me based on the amount I paid taxes on, from my 1099, and I try to pay as little taxes as possible, just like Donald Trump. so my Pre-qualification is pretty low for investing in New Jersey where I live. 

As an investor relations employee of a private real estate fund, I’ve spent a significant amount of time talking to our high net worth investors who have taken this message very seriously and are interested in how real estate fund fees affect their returns.

Inadequate Initial funding of the entity.or fails to maintain a separate identity from its owners ( using the business bank account for business purchases, maintaining separate books)Conversion of entities Assets for Personal Benefit:Another factor that poses a risk of piercing the corporate veil is the draining of entities assets (such as payments of large salaries to shareholder-employees) that leaves the entity with inadequate resources to pay its debts.Do not commingle personal and entities assets.Maintain a separate entities bank account.Execute an operating agreement.Follow the provisions of an operating agreement.Have LLC member meetings according to the operating agreement or board meeting for S-corpTitle property in the name of the entity.Maintain insurance on property in the entities name.Sign all entities documents in the entities name, not the members' names.These steps will also provide a better defense against other creditors attempting to pierce the LLC veil.You might want to spend few hundred dollars if you are stressed about this and get a lawyer to set you up with correct entities. 

If we make mistakes or take shortcuts our employees can get seriously hurt or killed and we are exposed to criminal and civil penalties.

I still don't communicate with most of my tenants but I pay an employee (s) to do that.

It seems if that is the case a SDIRA is the answer because it sounds like your mom works for a company as a W2 employee. 

After buying my first property I quickly found that I was ready to buy more properties and instead of just "getting" to retirement it has evolved into wanting to retire from my employee job to become financially free.