Newcomer from Issaquah, WA w/ Questions

[Jeremy Bohnett]

Hi all! Really excited to be here to learn and hopefully eventually teach as well.

My name is Jeremy and I live in Issaquah, WA and am 29 years old. I have been learning a bit about RE investing through BP and other sources these last year and it's about time I take some action steps. 

I have a couple very basic questions as I'm getting going (I know there are more appropriate Forum Categories to use for these questions, but I figured I'd get a hall pass for being new):

1. I live in Washington. My RE investing partner-to-be (if that's a thing) lives in Arkansas. We are scoping out deals in Arkansas and are getting closer to pulling the trigger. He currently has an LLC with another prospective RE partner open already. If he were to add me to the LLC, could just two of three LLC members invest in a property? Or should the two of us just open up a separate LLC for this property?

2. What's the best state to open the LLC up in this scenario? How long should we expect it to take for us to open an LLC, open and fund a business bank account, and secure a traditional loan? And is this everything we will need to do before putting down an offer on a property or is it more or less involved?

3. How does getting approved for a traditional 20% down loan work with two people in an LLC? We are both very familiar with how it works individually as we are homeowners, but not familiar has it works with the two of us with different incomes, credit scores, etc.

Thanks for your help with these. Looking forward to hearing back!