Remember - It also reduces your deduction next year, because you will only have 11 payments in 2017, unless you do it again next December!

Real estate is a large, functioning market and if the property was worth more than the debt/encumbrances against it the owner would have sold it 99.9% of the time.  

For what it's worth those two houses on 30th st look nice.

The upside is that there is no lien on the property.If you have the ability to do a refinance after a seasoning period, and the house is worth more than you paid for it, consider doing that and pulling out all your capital.If you use a smaller credit union, some will bundle multiple small properties into one blanket loan. 

location, amenities etc. that would make it worth more.

Its not worth wasting everyones time to put something into writing.

I think paying them is worth it if this is the case.

Because a verbal acceptance is not actually a thing, there was nothing worth rushing to convey to you and nothing that you could have done differently.

In my opinion, the BP books they have published are well worth their cost, so are the podcasts which are free. 

An LLC adds complexity and cost that may not worth it.