The only way you are gonna meet people who can help you, private lenders, etc is by getting out there and talking to people about what you want to do.I hope this helps!

You can search on the forums for lots of posts about how to determine class, some even delve into local criteria like asset price etc.

I have a hard time imagining that I would not meet the qualification of "Material Participation in Real Estate" as a real estate professional, which would allow me to apply the bonus deprecation toward my earned income as a real estate professional.

Option 1 will require experience and is just there for illustrative purposes, 2 and 3 (in the absence of experience owning CRE) will require that the borrower be local to the property (if you want the best financing available on your first rodeo, stay local and stay turnkey, your lack of CRE experience is offset by your presumed local neighborhood level knowledge, etc, you can get fancy & still get good financing once you've got local & turnkey property #1 under your belt).

Local and National.

I've done some localized studies and the numbers of owner occupied buyers versus investor buyers in several of my current markets are 10 to1 ratio and as high as 25 to 1. 

I’m focusing on virtual and will eventually start focusing in my local market NYC.

My other interests include stock market investing, technology, and history.I hope to meet other like-minded investors, entrepreneurs and professionals on here!

Our mission is to empower local entrepreneurs and investors to transform underutilized properties into awesome community assets that benefit all.If you send me a DM I can share more about our courses and free webinars.

Generally though, more protection is better than no protection.Also, I live and invest in the NWI area and I can refer you to a local attorney for LLC questions or help point you in the right direction.