As far as my why, I too want to build passive income so that I can accelerate paying off debt and saving for retirement.

Hopefully I can accelerate that but I want to be conservative by setting attainable goals. 

It has really accelerated our savings!

Usually I'm doing them for business owners who also own their buildings so accelerating depreciation in the rental company, and raising rents on the S Corporation has been an extremely lucrative model.

Starting out again, I would go to them sooner to really help accelerate our growth with much more ease

The reasoning is to accelerate our ability to purchase properties as we each only need 50% of the down payment and closing costs.

Maybe look in to an accelerated "boot camp".

You need to know what your options are on depreciating your rental units (you can depreciate your rentals faster if you want using accelerated depreciation but you have to make that decision at the very beginning of when you start your accounting on the properties - you cant switch later).That being said, I would suggest that no, you do not need to be an LLC to writeoff expenses for your rentals.

I would definitely recommend reaching out to other agents in your office and volunteering to help with some of their more menial tasks (things like attending appraisals, inspections, open houses, etc)It's hard to portray yourself as an expert to a prospective client when you've never been involved in a deal, but if you can fast track that a bit by riding piggy back on someone else's it will accelerate you and help build that comfort and experience.

Still, she got on board pretty quickly when she saw the accelerated track to financial freedom that real estate rentals and flipping could provide.