And what precautionary measures should I take before actually purchasing , keep in mind this is my first ever real estate purchase , so I need a walk through of everything .

I prefer to give up more for the renovator, so they know when they come back they will make money on wholesale deals from me......don't count on it, but I have even had a few guys come back and let me get the difference of actual and retail costs I quoted for they safety.....rare but it does happenArv times 60% minus repair costs (retail)= your max offer you should never go over.....I always try and get more money by offering a decent margin below this max offer to ensure healthy deals, 10% is guaranteed if I can only get it for the formula max offer......as most will probably tell you I use what I use, however some will be more than mine others will be below, it is what works for me......I never break my max offer.

We are actually planning on investing in rental properties.

There will typically be a full marketing package with financial actuals and pro-forma that brokers will send you on request.For smaller deals you're typically working with less sophisticated sellers and may get a rent roll, but I don't usually expect a full P&L report (nor do I trust the ones I do get) before I get into due diligence.

The first thing I thought was that someone wanted the farmland and split up the actual farm lot into the tillable land and then the house and barn they didn't want.

LTV was about 70% if I remember correctly and interest was actually higher and variable.

Not sure if the guy who told me this has actually done it or it was just an idea, but I was just curious whether or not this was actually a feasible thing to do.

Here are the actual 2015 numbers:  Plus loans are the grad school loans. 

And - really shaking my head on this one - why would you NOT be looking at notes and other types of investments that could not only be something for your money to do while waiting for their next outing as a down-payment on a rental but could actually speed you to that destination by growing your money pretty predictably?

Didn't actually get someone to look at it yet.We want to  use our HELOC which is currently being used at 60k and available amount of 300k.