Instead I slowly plugged away at acquiring properties, rehabbing in all my spare time then walked away in my early 40's when Passive Eclipsed W-2.My motto was stay single, focused & frugal .... 2 of them stuck :)

Unless you are purchasing a very expensive primary home it's doubtful you will have an interest deduction that eclipses the general deduction.

You'll find Columbus to be a generally more expensive market with wild appreciation...you will find more value in Cleveland, but the general tradeoff is the stability and appreciation of the market.Columbus will be one of the 10 biggest cities in the county within 10-years...it's 14 now...and there is no sign of slowing...my standing prediction is it eclipses Chicago in 50-years, but we'll see.

On a single deal, the money saved by choosing one market over another will be eclipsed by what you will be doing 10 years from now.

Also the residuals from recruitment is a major one at eXp although that's thankfully being eclipsed by actual active R.E. activities, so less "MLM" and more "MLS". 

I like the prior posts as tax delinquent people tend not to respond to anything but a good shaking, in person, and that requires a door knock and a principal who opens the door.Also, they may not live at the subject property and have to be located, sometimes "skip traced" and that located visited in person, often multiple times because these people have busy schedules, evidenced by their priorities eclipsing their need to protect these properties from loss. 

Save the LLCs for segregating investors or for joint ventures where a business structure is needed.Brian has my vote for best post of 2016 here on outlining how the duty to defend, which you get from your insurance not your llc, is often key ( and I like a landlords policy with all bells and whistles plus an umbrella, as I have just few residential as small scale landlord with only  1-4 unit property) .. the cost of the defense now may eclipse the liability in some cases and is present even if you prevail..so insure properly whatever you decide for an entity......Other cons, you may also lose the ability to represent yourself in an eviction and have challenges in financing and refinancing as mentioned  ( and I won't get to due on sale here but search that on BP for more discussion there)...

And I agree with everything you said.That being said, I recently eclipsed $1M of net worth investing in an APPRECIATION market (Hawaii).

In my opinion, I really hope that they don't get eclipsed by Amazon. 

Per the appraisal there are a number of comps for the land parcels themselves (two) however the rock base for the track eclipses those numbers itself as the area is quite rural.