Although I collect rental income from our long term tenants, the lenders consider it "Border Income" and will not count it.If I buy a STR, will the income generated from that count as income when qualifying for another mortgage?

"Frankensteining" your transaction by buying personally and flipping it into the LLC is poor strategy, albeit done often.Hard money lenders generally prefer, if not always, want a LLC because it also protects them. 

So if you find one whose willing to operate in truth, honesty and integrity then they will not have a problem with the following (13) Rules of Engagement I have created when dealing with PMLs.1-I require that we transact all business using a local Title Company of my choosing, using their resources (i.e. title search etc), their loan servicing capabilities and an attorney of my choosing to draw up contracts. 

So I am technically, an out of state investor, but only live 75 minutes away from the property (across the IL border), so I am planning to self manage.

As that tree was falling the portion that crossed your property line became yours .  

I understand that you can only transact as the principal, but can you collect commission when you buy?

It is often fairly simple to access the 24-volt wire at the keypad or some location, cross the wire and open the gate.

Once the transaction has happened, there is no way to benefit from the exchange.As Ken said above, there may be other tax strategies, like cost seg, that could potentially help to offset the capital gain tax with other losses, but check with your CPA to see if any of those will work for you.

Low skilled migrant workers also fled or were turned away at the border so our Farms have had to Automate. one Strawberry picking Machine can now do the work of 10 workers using Computer Vision.

@Jasmine RussellMost states do, some don’t you can just google “public real estate tax records (state name)”“Public entity look up (state name)”You can check the registry of deeds to verify the llc they say owns the property, does own the property as every transaction is recorded with real estate You can also reach out to a title company, they’ll be able to help with your specific state etc and the nuances Not everyone has a portfolio website I’ll give you an example of one of my properties in Boston , it’s owned by 274 Seaver st llc and the address is 274 Seaver st In the corporation division you can google the name of the entity, and my name pops up, so boom I own the llc Then you go to tax assessor records and the deed says “grantee 274 seaver st llc” boom you know the entity owns the real estate Then you can google Hope this helps :)