Also, not sure I agree with your premise that we stand very little chance of outperforming the investments of an insurance company....especially when you consider the fact that it takes 7 or so years for your policy's cash value to match the cash that was put in.

Be mindful of following the rules of your state and make sure to treat the LLC as a stand alone entity and not an extension of your personal estate.

Or good ol cash to hire a mentor, cpa, realtor consulting fee, etc can go a long way to make you stand out in a sea of people expecting something for nothing. best example i can give you is I wanted to learn from a multifamily syndicator.

The T stands for Thankful where we say what we are grateful for.  

@Shaun Weekes Yes, I already have a heloc for $20K on stand buy.

Any small blip in market values and if the lender has to take back the property in foreclosure after resale costs they stand to lose money on the loan.I have seen owner finance deals before at the bottom cycle for 10 to 15% down but in todays market there are too many buyers for cash or considerable down with a smaller loan.If you do allow a structure for owner finance that puts 10% down likely the price and terms will not be in your favor in exchange for the seller taking on more risk financing the note at a high LTV.You might try to bring on accredited investors to make up more of the equity stack to meet the lenders requirements on a larger deal for a typical loan LTV .

Stand disclaimer that I’m not a lawyer, CPA or anything. 

Properly built and maintained log cabins can stand for hundreds of years.

Is the association in good standing?

Which it has been proven many times that state authorities feel is thin veil is total nonsense.To put it into your terms buying the shoes for $190 & selling them for $210 is not the same as walking into the store and asking the manager if you can stand there all day & sell them to the customers so long as everytime they ring them out they do so at $210 with you getting $20 & the store keeping $190.