From my experience presenting offers to individuals who have a contractual agreement with a realtor is almost a waste of time for investment purposes, unless you work with a realtor who is "investor friendly" Most realtors I come across are in their own world.

Now from the tax angle think of an LLC as a lump of clay that you can mold into the type of tax planning that fits your individual situation.You can choose to have an LLC taxed in one of four ways;1.

Obviously 100% down is ideal.

I deal primarily with REOs working with clients on the purchase of them (About 75% of my business).Banks and AMs have a process they use to look at offers, some pay attention to the names coming in on the contracts, some do not.If you included a letter stating you were not associated with the other party, you should be good.During a multiple offer situation, this is USUALLY how banks view offers, in order of importance, and these do have a great effect with who they do choose to be the one to buy the property.Purchase priceClosing costsFinance typeEarnest Money DepositI've had buyers to win contracts over other bidders not by purchase price, but by the fact they had cash to close, or were willing to put down $10k as compared to another buyer's $1k.

I've also heard of 3% as typical. 2) As little as possible, ideally zero.

Harrison, to my knowledge the four rule created by fannie only applies to individuals.

Welcome to BP.Much to read and learn as well as network with like minded individuals here.

Is there any way that an ordinary individual can get access to exhaustive mls listings for a certain area?

I also have a partner that I can use that can provide the money down but ideally want to do this solo and not worry about a partner.

Failure to pay gives you much better recourse with a business rather than an individual tenant.The key is knowing how to create and negotiate a contract agreement which protects your interests and is financially reasonable.It is common that a PM company in commercial will take the entire value of the lease and charge a % of it.