investing in Commercial properties questions

[James Ellis]

I have thought of buying a commercial property and have a couple of questions. Lets say I see a property for $1.2M for a first floor in a commercial building. A commercial lender requires 25% down ($300K). Should I be looking for a partner and setting up a LLC? I hope this in turns entices me to buy one or two more commercial properties. I have read investing books saying that setting up a LLC is often the best thing a person could do. What are the loan rates for commercial loans? I can probably come up with the $300k we have probably $300k in equity in our home and our 401K is probably approaching $1M, and I have a timber property in southern VA that has $150K in equity. I am looking at 2 years down the road into maybe buying a commercial property. And I am not looking at SFH because I do not want to deal with renters 24/7. How have people started out buying commercial properties?