I will add that I heard a smart person recently ask a room full of of attorneys "does anybody know of somebody that actually used their LLC to shield them from liability that was in excess of their umbrella policy?" 

If you get a loan to buy it initially, the entire platted lot will be taken as collateral, you'd have to survey the excess land off and refinance the duplex on a smaller lot to free it of any encumbrance, or survey off the excess and only finance the purchase on a smaller lot if the seller can do the subdivision for a new legal description.

If you have a ton of personal or other debt, that may impact the underwriting since it may be determined you will need to make excess draws from the subject commercial project to satisfy your other obligations.Underwriting is not an exact science but to answer your initial question, no, you don't necessarily have to have an outside source of income.

Meaning the current debt on them is in excess of what I paid.

The tenant sued and the court awarded the tenant back the amount in excess of the pet deposit.

I discovered this while working myself to death, in the profession that I had worked so hard to obtain... that would never allow me to become wealthy (in spite of the cost to get there).I agree with the owner occupied advice and house hacking- then you can use the EQUITY from paying down the home loan to fuel future investments- we bought a fixer upper and just got it appraised with over 70% appreciation.I advocate taking action- I am not good at sitting around waiting to be successful- so working an entire home renovation flip while living in the property and working full time will help a motivated person (guessing you both are like me) to feel they are making progress :) Having a mortgage worth of student debt is no joke, but one you have the mental shift to realize that minimum payments and maybe never paying it off aren't that bad- you feel much more comfortable starting to build wealth (even if you will have that debt the rest of your life).Best of luck :)

Blabbering aside, if your partner is the contractor he might have excess material, can get material at cost, etc.

You don't want to provide incorrect advice.Distributions from a partnership are normally not a taxable event unless the distribution is in excess of the partner's basis in the partnership.Another thing to be wary about is how the UK will tax their income generated through the US LLC.

I have money loaned to flippers and have excess that is sitting idle like Kevin said.

This will vary a lot depending on your area, if you have enough supply (gas pipe) for the boiler and the installer.The plus is that you don't have to worry about running out of oil and you have the chance to install a properly sized and piped boiler, allowing you to save on fuel.