One of the reason is that I would be able to put less down on the home as a down payment.

If you wanted to invest through an LLC it would require you to purchase it as an investment property from 15%-25% down payment.

It could easily be inferred that the non-recoverable costs for just engineer design service is on the buyer as all inspection related costs are at the buyer’s discretion during the inspection period.  

A down payment of at least 10% is advisable unless you have strong cash flow from stable income sources.

Once the home is under the LLC Ownership, am I able to deduct expenses/mortgage interest payments from my own personal W2? 

A more important question is how much is your PITI payment versus your $1100 a month rent payment (assuming you're going to rent the property) since you want cash flow.  

It is as non-passive as you get in real estate.

Either way you will need 25% of the down payment.

Here's the example: I have a rental property with a $28,000 loan balance at 9.25% interest and the monthly payment is $350.

On the other hand,   there is a non profit in Hawaii called Reuse Hawaii that has a bunch of good stuff at a discount - https://www.reusehawaii.org/.