It’s saved me time & money on my house search.

The remaining 10% I have in cash sitting in an online savings account.  

But...If I wanted to engage in other REI deals with money straight from my savings account, would I have to form a separate business entity in order to take part?

You can save yourself lots of headaches if you buy this with another kind of financing other than hard money.

Additionally, Lowe's allowed me to use their 10% moving coupon on the purchase and I saved another +$200.

Luckily, I had a good job through the recession and rented out a room to a friend, but I've often thought, if I had lost my job for some reason, I may have ended up losing the house because I had no equity and no real savings. 

I’ve saved about 50k and ready to invest into real estate.

I think the market is getting close to being at the top, could be another year or two but the savings bypassing capital gains I believe will supersede the appreciation gain.   

The area is not the worst or best, but someone could save money over the hotels in the area and have some privacy to boot. 

But they don't break the bank when compared to the taxes saved by being able to put exchange dollars to the improvements.