@Joe Gellenbeck Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a Class A property in Class D area, what quality of tenant will you get?

Raised properties income from $2400 to $4300 and living for free in a massive 1600 sq ft 3 bedroom.

If your goal is passive income, it's not going to be in New Jersey when you factor in cost to purchase, management costs, and rent to price ratio, but what you can get is steady appreciation.

.: Quote from @Jay Hinrichs: having been a back room vendor for Montelongo  Vertucci  rich dad poor dad.I got to interact with hundreds of students.. its like anything RE related only a little worse than say RE agents .. 20% of RE agents make 80s of the income

So lets say you own a home with $100k in equity but have zero income.

I can't just put the LLC's income directly into my joint personal tax return, right?

If this were a Real Estate secured note,  a note broker or flipper might offer you up to about 65% of the remaining balance whereas an investor who is building passive income streams week offer up to about 90%. 

Then, with what they don't cash out, they can put into a centralized lending platform, and earn up to 8%.

My husband is a high income W2 earner, and meeting active criteria would put some of our tax dollars back in our pocket.

Gifting equity in a house may be more trouble than it is worth if you are not near the life-time exclusion1) Potentially having to get the property appraised everytime an equity is gifted2) Having a title company update the title every time3) Exemption of the gift tax return is normally for cash gifts below the annual gift tax exclusion, you may still need to file if you gift non-cash4) If there is partial ownership over several years, having to properly pro-rate certain items such as real estate taxes, mortgage interest and rental income if the property is a rentalBest of luck