Then 2008 happened and as a realtor in his early 20s with no established business, I found employment elsewhere.

I started investing in real estate three years ago: I have a 4-unit complex and a vacation rental, and both are doing well.

So if you were to buy with a hard money or renovation loan, and you buy it right, you could buy and fix up a house with no money out of pocket with the right lender and as long as your purchase, reno costs and reno loan costs are under 70% of the value of the home, you could then refinance into a permanent loan and hold it.There are some smaller local banks that have a rehab to permanent where you can buy the house and renovated it with the construction loan and without "refinancing" the loan converts to a permanent loan after the renovation is complete.

However, there are still many good deals out there, and as a wholesaler I also see a ton of off market properties that come in at a deep discount.

Each of the 2 units have glass entry doors and a solid wall between them to totally separate them.

Do i need a good credit and a w2, because I don't have any of that.  

I had a home in a C neighborhood, and I had the pool filled in because I knew it would not be maintained and a big liability

Giving proof of funds and a bio can help, but the buyer that offers more often times wins anyways

Now if you have a million or two in cash, and an other couple million or more in properties, then yeah, set up some LLC's.Have you thought about possibly just getting the loan in your name, live in it, and a few years down the line when you have moved out, there is a little equity just doing a quit claim deed to put it into your LLC? 

It is certainly possible to combine a primary residence exclusion and a 1031 exchange to completely eliminate most and defer the rest of the tax.However in your case with only 1.5 years of depreciation it might make more sense financially to simply forgo the 1031 portion and pay the depreciation recapture.