First Timer Investment and OO Duplex

[Daniel Hofmeister]

Hello everyone!

Long time BP lurker, first time forum poster.  A little about me: I'm a 25 year old engineer from Cincinnati who's become steadily more excited about the housing and entertainment renaissance happening in the greater Cincinnati area.  I'm ready to make the jump into real estate investing! 

I'm in contract for a duplex in the Cincinnati area, that needs some much needed updating and repairs before I move into the top half.  The bottom half is leased until April.  The house specs are as follows:

Duplex:

Upper/lower 1BR/1BA each, ~550sqft per apartment

Contracted price: $65,000

Estimated repairs/renovation (cash): $10,000

Rent: $550/month/apt, I'll pay rent for myself into the duplex bank account

Seems like a pretty solid deal, I'm sure it will cashflow nicely.

So now that I'm going down this path, there's a few things I'm not so sure about. For those who have done BRRRR method, does it pay off to renovate to a higher quality finish? I'm considering going for solid surface or granite instead of laminate, pretty nice bathroom fixtures, etc. Does it pay off? Or do nicer/more durable finishes ultimately make little difference in lowering upkeep costs?

Secondly, I'm setting up a new bank account for duplex use only. I have enough income from my day job to live off of, and won't need the paid rent for anything, so the only thing that the duplex account will be used for is putting back into the duplex for repairs, etc. I'll be talking to a CPA soon but in the meantime, I'd like to know if creating an LLC would be in my best interest to not have to pay a bunch of taxes on money I won't personally be touching anyways.

Thanks for your insight everyone!