The PNT who is in Seattle cannot meet in person to see the place and wants to discuss more information over the phone.My main question for the BP community is how do I go about entertaining both of these tenants interests in the new place?

It depends on a few factors. 

I'm trying to learn as much as possible about financing and my local market.Tom Murray, yes SFR flips will be my main focus to start.

It depends on if IRS considers you an investor or trader. they look at different factors, I pulled court cases where they looked at these:(1) the taxpayer's investment intent; (2) the nature of the income to be derived from the activity; and (3) the frequency, extent, and regularity of the taxpayer's securities transactions (Kay; Mayer; and Moller)  A taxpayer is a securities trader only when both of the following are true: (1) the taxpayer's trading activity is substantial; and (2) the taxpayer seeks to profit from short-term swings in the daily market movement, rather than to profit from the long-term holding of investments. 

@Michael Cheng28-33% Debt to income, 30% is a safe and easy factor to start with as you probably wont be close.20-25% down payment will be required for non-owner occupied properties.I would never borrow from my retirement accounts, I was just addressing your concern about having 6 months reserves required to get the investment property mortgages.

I purchased my first in Cranston and as much as I’d like to stay around my house now for the convenience factor I would consider buying elsewhere if I could find a good deal.

My main reason for considering commercial is because 1) the duplex and triplex and even 4plex market in my area is very competitive and it drives purchasing prices too high. 2) I guess I’m kind of a pretty ambitious guy and my wife has followed my lead and trusted my guidance and I want to help our growing family (2 kids and 1 on the way) meet our financial goals as fast as I can!

@Brian Burke  I think one main difference is the syndicator can send out a blast email to all investors at once on a specific property. turn key or PM has 1000 different properties for 700 different people and 600 different messages much much tougher..But generally speaking syndication is a higher level organization for sure.. 

. - the main occupations are manufacturing and labor, sales and service jobs

Keep in mind that my plan for my first property is to find a property that has a guest house of some sort detached from the main property.