It sounds like you've experienced the dilemma a lot of us do - that what you do to pay less in taxes (reduce income, accelerate/increase expenses) ends up hurting you when it comes time to apply for a loan.The good news is that if you own your own business and know you want to start usingou bank loans, you can start making yourself look better by increasing your salary, etc.Once you feel more comfortable with RE investing you also definitely might benefit from looking into a Solo 401(k) - but I almost hesitate to mention it because at this point it could just complicate your life and distract you from learning more about RE.

If the sale price is lower than the assessed tax value, apply to get them reduced with the sales data.

Do you see much opportunity to boost rents or reduce utility costs?  

Refi at higher value, reducing cashflow to $100/month, but putting $50K in play for you. 

I work in the IT field and my wife in the Medical field.

I am wondering how hard it would be to create a mortgage for this note which in my opinion would reduce the risk .  

In many cases they simply need to raise some cash to pay taxes or a medical bill and don't really want to sell their note. 

My reason for considering conventional is: I have the money to put 20% down, the mortgage payment would be lower, which reduces my overall cost of living.

I found BP about 20 months ago while I was at home and medically recovering from a bad experience.

My ideal scenario would be to own a small investment company with a partner that holds a few mid-sized rental properties for baseline income, and supplements this with a few high-profit flips every year to help grow the rental portfolio and pay for lifestyle upgrades, vacations, etc.My formal education is an Electrical Design engineer, and for the past 10 years I've worked for large companies designing complex electronic (computer) circuits for things like Medical Devices, LED lighting, etc.