The allure of being able to cap major expenses for an AC or Heat pump at 450$ a year plus 100$ per incident charge seems like a good way to keep your costs fairly predictable.I suppose, if you pay this thing for 10 years, and have some minor things like a dishwasher/ AC issues/ Heat pump issues and they fix it, could be a wash more or less.   

Also if it is just paint and a little cosmetic stuff unless you got a smoking deal you may not have enough equity to refinance out into a favorable long term conventional loan.  

I read about people doing this, but I don't see anything about how they actually set up the ownership/investments.So here's my question- in these situations, should I try birddogging and give them the deals and charge them a fee, or is that illegal/shady?

You can look into portfolio lenders or commercial loans if you max out conventional ( Fannie /Freddie ) loans .

Most conventional lenders will require at least a 6 month seasoning period.Are you sure you can get a Refinance loan amount that is 83% LTV?  

Hi Mindy, when you say "traditional mortgage"...do you mean FHA, conventional, commercial, or "all of the above"? 

My question: can my LLC buy a property, fix it up and sell it to myself (as a private buyer) with a conventional loan?

So if you have a nicer building in a nicer area, you can generally charge more than your competitors.

Will this disrupt my my chances of getting a conventional loan for the duplex?

Derek Luttrell if you overpay taxes slightly like most Americans from your day job and have residential rentals that are conventional financed with the depreciation and mortgage interest and repairs etc you’ll probably pay nothing your first few years.Since you’re buying this year you won’t get a full year of depreciation on any of these, so you may pay a bit less but it’s not gonna be a lot.