A trust may offer some of the same benefits as an LLC, depending on your goals, and allowing you to claim the part of the house you live in as homesteaded tax.Make sure you have the right home insurance and consider an umbrella policy for extra protection.Certainly buying a house, using conventional financing with limited money down as a primary residence and renting out parts of the house to help pay the mortgage, is a smart financial move.

Commenting to follow - I'm based in California. 

Alternatively, Pinal County, with areas like Casa Grande and Maricopa, offers slightly lower property values but promising growth.

This kind of thing is reason #42 I only offer MTM leases. 

All the other banks I spoke to, like TD Bank, HSBC, and Signature FCU, have limitations, such as you can't have more than 4 mortgages in your name, or they can only use 3 properties to offset DTI.Better.com offers a rate of 9.5-11% (depending on loan amount, credit score, etc.), and it also requires the property to be in my name (not in an LLC).Does anyone know of a bank that will do HELOC on rentals in NC that do not require the property to be in the owner's name and/or is not limited by how many mortgages you already have on other rentals?

You cannot assume his mortgage since its a "Marital asset" he will need to sell it to you in order for the wife to get bought out based on her equitable share.You can buy it from him if they agree to a price but I seriously doubt the spouse is going to take a loss. 

The issue I’ve found when analyzing LTR properties with BP Rental property and Rent calculator is my cashflow is negative (I’m using calculations based on numbers outlined in the BP Rental property webinar). 

We don't turn anyone down until the unit is offered to someone, even if we know they won't make the cut. 

If for some reason I can't get a utility turned on, I assume that the utility itself inside the house is faulty and will need repair/replacement and adjust my offer accordingly.

Hey Julian,I am using Deal Machine to build lists and spik tracing comes with the subscription.