You can spend as little as $100 to form an LLC, or you could use an attorney and spend $1,000 or more.

That makes the investing and property management a LOT easier.  

@Shannon Vistisen I would say this, unless you know everything that is tied to that entity, buy the property alone.

I have had a long term interest in purchasing an investment property and I'm looking to be smarter about this.

That is good but there are fewer folks looking to spend over $1000 a night on a place.This all looks like a problem waiting to happen IMHO.

Generally speaking when you find more owner occupied properties and less rentals you're in C+/B class.

After years of self-managing our single-family rentals, we decided to hire a property manager to provide full service management.

That's why we require clients to spend a couple days with us in Milwaukee up front, so we can get on the same page and determine an asset quality.Hint: the hood looks much better on a spreadsheet than up close in person.

The wrong tenant can lead to non-payment, evictions, and property damage.

Now, say in yr 2 you have to do added work and spend another $10k of improvements.