One investor and you this should give you a safe harbor for not soliciting or setting up a security.. 

I just try to cover all the bases, so when my 'paranoid' radar goes off, I start drilling down on the issue until I feel it is safe.

Being this is your personal home, you can safely be a little more picky.

Newbie here looking for advice:While I saved up cash for real estate, I didn't want the money just sitting in a .05% interest rate savings account, so I moved it to a brokerage account and invested in relatively safe large cap stocks to earn a better return than a savings account.

Cash flow doesn't include non-cash transactions such as depreciation and amortization.Using $15k as a downpayment on a new property wouldn't be an expense for tax purposes.Your closing statement could be scrubbed for more favorable tax treatments (than 27.5/39 year depreciation), but the bulk will be capitalized.As Ashish mentioned, there are strategies to reduce taxable income, but what you're proposing won't.

Buy something for cheap with cash, make sure rents will make the 2% rule (or whatever #'s your looking for), and over budget for the rehab just to be safe. 

Best to be safe.

Can somebody explain to me how the investor can play things safe when taking out commercial loans?

(Single Member LLC ("disregarded entity"), owned by my revocable living trust).Additional note: The State of primary residence does not consider owning real or personal property as transacting business -- thus, registration of the foreign LLC would not be required.

The safe play for me is probably to just buy an Investment property in Buffalo (I already have a good relationship with a PM here who would be a great resource for me), but for some reason my heart is in Ellicottville - the idea of being able to use a property as a vacation getaway for a week or two a year and then rent it out the remainder of the year sounds super appealing.