In your opinion, would it be best to go that route...make a financed offer with no financing contingency...as opposed to either incorporating a gift letter from the third party to the LLC OR bringing in the third party as an equity partner in the LLC?  

Of course it's under contract but it gave me the thought of looking towards SF vs condo route.

If not you can go the private money route but you need to see if your numbers make sense with PM.

However, we play to sell within the year and either buy another primary residence that better fits our needs or buy an investment property and use the cash flow to pay for our rent - that's the choice we've given ourselves.So, if we did go the investment route, I was thinking that I would invest out of state where the cap rates are much higher and gain enough cash flow to live almost rent free (I think I would need a cap rate of about 10% on a $700K or $800K property).

It's always a good idea to talk to an attorney about it as well.Personally, if I could get 30 year fixed rate financing but only if the properties were in my personal name I would probably go that route and just buy a bunch of insurance.

It becomes a burden for loved ones when things turn out to be too much work or an inconvenience even though they don't want to let you down.If you want to go the buy and hold route, I highly suggest having a business partner/co-owner  that has the same mindset towards investing as you do AND is local to the area you want to invest in.

This would probably also be the simplest route.    

I mean it's funds you can't live off of until retirement but I am much happier controlling and earning much greater returns than I was in a stranded 401k plan.You definitely want to go the full LLC route so you can have checkbook control at your local bank rather than having to go through the self directed IRA company to make all the purchases.

It's completely situational to each person, but if it will cashflow and the profits from a sale can't be easily used on something else that will make you more money it can be a good route to follow.

Did you go conventional route?