It's important to do your homework and think about your personal risk tolerance and long-term goals.Good luck!

Thinking about setting up a property management company to use for my rentals to show the income as part of the management company rather than personal finances.

Personally I find that a red flag unless they have a good reason.

From a quality of life perspective you can't beat living in Saratoga.

There is of course taking into account the area and if it is getting some life pumped back into it, sure you might have a builder or buyer wanting to put a house on it.I would love to hear from anyone with experience on holding on to an empty lot and just taking the hit on the taxes until you can sell for a large price. 

Accounting firms typically have nothing to do with this process unless somehow the title company subcontracted the preparation of the 8288 to them (which really isn’t necessary as it doesn’t require tax expertise, only familiarity with the FIRPTA procedures in general, which any title co who’s worked with a sale by a foreign person would likely know).This is indeed a weird situation and it definitely is unsupported by any authority in the code and regulations to send the withholding tax amount to an accounting firm acting as a middle man for the IRS unless they somehow expressly made an agreement to do so.Good luck with that

I also received my broker's license tho (solely to become more knowledgeable while making personal real estate investments), but I don't see their logic, so I figured I'd turn to BiggerPockets to help me better understand what's going on. 

Qualifications typically center around whether the monthly rental income can at least break even (1.00 DSCR) with the monthly PITI.We would simply need to know the following information to determine eligibility, interest rate, and loan terms for DSCR financing:o Purchase or Refinanceo Property Addresso Monthly Rental incomeo Annual Taxeso Annual Insuranceo Estimated Credit ScoreThe documentation is relatively light as well, compared to a conventional loan underwritten to your personal income/taxes/debts.▪ Entity documents ▪ 2 months of bank statements ▪ Photo ID ▪ Lease agreement (refinance) ▪ Sales contract (purchase)

@Dylan TiernanI became a Real Estate Agent later in life.

So now I’m stuck at the stage of choosing a market.I have ~$60k saved up and set aside (separate from personal expense/emergency funds).