If not, is there an alternative mortgage option that is attractive (in terms of down payment, or interest rate) for such a scenario?

There are alternative lenders galore but the interest rates are close to 9% along with sky-high fees.2) My single family home rehab amongst the other rehabs my contractor was taking care of didn't seem to be much of a priority.

I self manage and am willing to pay VRBO because I charge what I need to charge knowing what the fees are, so although I do understand what Collin says about "affecting my rents", the alternative is what?....

(If you are looking at 5+ units you will be on commercial side regardless of LLC or personal).Alternatively, buying and mortgaging your name, then transferring title to LLC can cause the lender to call the mortgage immediately. 

The alternative would be to live there for 2 years so you could pay zero tax all these plans should be based on if you play to make $25k (taxes wont matter much) or $250k (2 years looking pretty good.)ps.

The administration is much more complex than just managing publicly traded assets so they leave alternative assets to specialty providers. 

Alternatively, we could save up cash and with our current available Heloc funds make the next purchase then pay down the Heloc over time, use the Heloc to buy...rinse and repeat.

It's close, it's much more affordable, and we have steady appreciation that is fueled by good job projections in coming years.

Alternatively you could find a private money lender.

Alternately, there are private money programs completely tailored to the needs of real estate investors.