Welcome @Rebecca Morris,These are the 10 first steps I would recommend to get started in REI (real estate investing):1) Educate Yourself: Read books, take online courses, and attend seminars about real estate basics, market trends, and investment strategies.2) Set Clear Goals: Define what you want to achieve in real estate—whether it’s buying a home, investing in rental properties, or flipping houses.3) Choose Your Niche: Decide if you want to focus on residential, commercial, or industrial real estate, or perhaps a mix of these.4) Research the Market: Analyze your local real estate market.

Here are a few below:Generally, buying through your personal name can reduce the interest rate - commercial rates on LLC mortgages are usually higher but you can research thisMost LLCs on incorporation don’t have any credit so it may be difficult to find. a lenderIf you own the property in your personal name you are exposing yourself to more risk and will want to transfer the property into LLC as soon as you canIf you own property in your personal name and transfer to LLC the lender may not allow or can call the entire loanLLC or personal ownership you need insurance.If you search the forums for this topic using the magnifying glass feature in top right corner of your screen on BiggerPockets you will find a lot of discussion on "Quit Claim" "Buying through LLC", "LLC or not" etc....

Matt, I have access to large Wholesale Commercial Property's for Sale in CA.  

Veteran Opportunities, Multi Family Units, Commercial Properties and Coastal Living are of great interest to me. 

Land is not like the residential or commercial markets; creative financing is the rule rather than the exception in land deals.

I do currently own one  5 unit mixed use property with 4 residential and 1 commercial space thats doing well.

I have bought commercial RE in a Roth SDIRA and separately purchased a couple investment properties via 1031 exchanges outside of my IRAs.I too have hesitation of the above index funds and need to investigate further.  

I am in the process of purchasing 3 properties all right next two each other. 1 multifamily and 2 commercial office space of which we plan on using a significant portion of for our medical practice.

Or in one case, we purchased a commercial property with an active chop shop situation.

In other words, these are GREAT locations.I used a traditional bank to finance the purchase of each of these buildings - using a traditional commercial real estate mortgage.