Just one piece of empirical evidence.

I'm not looking to build an empire, just eventually generate about 40k/year in rental income in 10 or so years.My wife has some rental property experience growing up (father was a landlord), but this will be our first rental property.

There wasn't FDIC insurance then either.Although I tend to agree with you for another reason...BOA is an evil empire that I despise with a white hot passion.

I want to clarify something here: When I asked if there were any Trump-wannabees here, I meant absolutely nothing disrespectful to either Donald Trump or anyone that studies him/follows him/wants to build an empire like his.

We make a lot of money and have amassed a small real estate empire.

Remember, history is written by the victors -- had our forefathers failed in their attempts to create a new country, we'd all be sitting in British history classes learning about the traitorous infidels from the 18th century who attempted to destroy the righteous British empire but who were luckily brought to justice before they could succeed.

I really want to create an empire and create something special of myself.

And as Kyle stated, operating your business within an entity is not the end-all, be-all in "bulletproof" protection, just another layer of your empire's onion.

I will definitely get up to speed on operating costs and general landlord issues before finding a realtor to help.As for LA, I agree about the Inland empire being a potential cashflow area.

If you are wholesaling multifamily properties here in the Inland Empire, I would certainly like to get more details.