My accountant is spectacular, far more advanced than I need and I pay through the nose for him, but he has saved me an unbelievable amount.

Part of the agent’s process will be to reach out and find out how much compensation the seller would be able or willing to commit to, versus how much compensation you are responsible for.If there is no buyer broker agreement in place, you are free to do as you wish, however, if you want representation and were hoping the seller will pay your agent, the agent should be the one to reach out to the seller first to make inquiries and secure a compensation agreement with the seller.  

You can pay less tax on your w2 via having the spouse that goes full time real estate qualify as real estate professional, and then continue to grow by buying more and more properties.

But they won't pay a premium for this so price accordingly.

So if I am buying a company that is grossing $100,000, according to your math I should only pay $1000. 

In that scenario, you would pay PMI for the life of the loan regardless of your equity percentage.

Regarding limitation of taxes upon selling, you'll need to make your expenses high (at least on paper), but if your plan is to purely sell it and cash out, then you're going to end up paying capital gains taxes.

I was thinking about adding this- that the renter should be responsible for paying the first $100 for any of the service calls to fix any  stuff in the house.

If they don't have the funds at the beginning, I'm not sure where they would have the funds to pay you back ever? 

Why are people paying these prices!?