Maybe I'm missing something, and sorry for the pessimism, but I just don't see a big upside for acquiring debt on land.

That would still be a move up as you would be gaining equity.I would have a little concern about someone wanting to exit out of an investment property so soon after they acquired it.

I hope to become a one-stop shop for folks who have no idea how to go about acquiring property in the USA.One big question that people immediately face, is how to legally, or at least safely transfer large amounts of RMB (100k usd+) out of China to the USA.

It could effectively be used by buy properties, as you could pay off existing mortgages (acceptable use) and use that equity to acquire new ones. 

I don't want to shoot for $100 per unit because that essentially doubles the amount of units I need to acquire.

@Ellen Xu @David Paul WestenbergerCosts to acquire a loan used to purchase an investment property are capitalized and amortized over the life of the loan.Any prepaid expenses paid at settlement (prepaid insurance, prorated property taxes, etc.) are deductible as operating expenses.

How do you plan on acquiring capital as bank lenders tighten up?

The repayment terms for a 401k participant loan are equal monthly/quarterly payments of principal and interest (typically prime plus 1%) over a 5 year term (longer if used to acquire your principal residence).Please note that if you take a full $50,000 and then pay back the loan, you can't take another $50,000 until 12 months after the first loan was fully paid back.Per the loan offset rules that went into effect with the 2018 Tax and Job Act: if you leave your job and the loan is current at the time you leave your job but then the loan goes into default because you left your job, you will have until your tax return deadline (including any timely filed extension) to make the loan current by depositing the outstanding balance into an IRA (and thereby avoid the taxes and penalties that would otherwise apply).Please keep in mind the multiple loan rules:Under those rules, the sum of the balances of a participant's outstanding 401k loans under a single 401k plan (using the highest outstanding balance of each loan over the last 12 months) can't exceed 50% or $50,000 whichever is less.

The repayment terms for a 401k participant loan are equal monthly/quarterly payments of principal and interest (typically prime plus 1%) over a 5 year term (longer if used to acquire your principal residence).Please note that if you take a full $50,000 and then pay back the loan, you can't take another $50,000 until 12 months after the first loan was fully paid back.Per the loan offset rules that went into effect with the 2018 Tax and Job Act: if you leave your job and the loan is current at the time you leave your job but then the loan goes into default because you left your job, you will have until your tax return deadline (including any timely filed extension) to make the loan current by depositing the outstanding balance into an IRA (and thereby avoid the taxes and penalties that would otherwise apply).Please keep in mind the multiple loan rules:Under those rules, the sum of the balances of a participant's outstanding 401k loans under a single 401k plan (using the highest outstanding balance of each loan over the last 12 months) can't exceed 50% or $50,000 whichever is less.

I've been doing that for years now, and just acquiring one or two places per year.