The three rentals I bought have been used for investment purposes only and have never been my place of residence.

I think you may want to go back and do some more research and reading, get a few books, listen to some additional pod casts and refine some of the methods used to find deals.There are a ton of ways to find property:Direct maildoor knockingnetworkingcraigslistcall adds or signs for rent and ask current landlords if they are willing to selldriving for dollarsMLSvarious RE agentsdelinquent tax records/paper publicationsre-purpose a buildingetc etcIf you were looking for MFH then yes switch to SFR.

The basic run down for a hotel/B&B would be this...50% - 1st mortgage provided by bank30% - provided by SBA (SBA will go up to 40% but because it's a new business they add 5% & ding you for another 5% because it's a single purpose asset (hotel)).  20% - down from borrower Full Recourse for any borrower with 20%+ in equity stake The 50% bank piece term & rate are somewhat up to the bank with a few exceptions.  

Best of luck.edit: ironically I see that @Mark Updegraff posted directly above me. 

How do you assign general expenses incurred in your rental business to individual houses for tax purposes? 

So the purpose is to increase mortgage lending.Other issues involve whether F & F should be totally private, totally government, or quasi-government, and should there only be one of them, two of them or more than two of them. 

Our goal is to fix & flip a house this year, and maybe continue doing fix & flips for extra income as we find deals, for the immediate purpose of gaining the living expenses for several months that we will need as we get started in real estate. 

I happen to think lease Options done right- full disclosure, tenant buyer in a credit repair program etc- serve a purpose and have value.

FYI I'm purposely looking in lower income neighborhoods for cheaper high cash flowing units.Thanks,

You also need to keep entities solvent, they must be reasonably funded as to the scope and purpose of business conducted or expected, that can be significant for a real estate operation.Many have a false sense of security operating behind an entity, financial and legal compliance does not change at all based on any structure of an entity.