However, you can do a reverse exchange which may achieve the same thing.  

Caviar will achieve these goals by combining investments in fast-appreciating crypto-assets with income-generating short-term loans, backed by real estate in the United States.

About 50% of investors use them.The biggest issue is that although many recommend the perceived protection of a LLC none have ever posted first hand experience of ever having needed the protection.

No firsthand experience, but every time I've seen this question come up the responses indicate that for a few small units LLC will not protect you better than simply adding an umbrella policy to your insurance while being more complicated and expensive to maintain.Also many snags to consider such as banks not likely to finance residential property to the name of an LLC, transferring to an LLC later can trigger a due on sale clause in your mortgage, if you mix personal funds and LLC funds to pay for something you can negate all legal protections.

I decided to quit my six figure job to fulfill my real estate investment education and devote time to it, I knew it was the only way for me to learn anything and truly achieve the financial independence I was aspiring for. 

I put a ton of value on anything Ken says, so I always want to know how someone came up with their rents, how they compare to the comps, and whether they seem achievable.  

On top of all of that, you would be able to take your $100K cash and purchase a solid 4 plex in a B/B- class neighborhood that will cash flow, and provide you with mortgage pay down, or you could purchase a higher returning residential multi in a more marginal neighborhood and try to achieve a higher return with something that is possibly value add, so now you have options for your investment.  

Would also like to learn more about the surrounding areas and about investors first hand experience in real estate investing. 

But you will get people looking at a worse property to achieve a percentage metric than translates into very little marginal income.Tip: If $20 per month represents such a material change that it would sway a buy/no-buy decision...don't get into real estate :) You will have WAY bigger issues over the years to contend with.

You have two options to avoid paying back the depreciation expense: 1) sell the building through a 1031 (this allows you to buy larger and larger properties each time without getting hit with capital gains tax or deprecation expense capture back, 2) refinance the property  and cash out your original equity (along with some or all of your appreciated equity you earned from the time of purchase) and use that cash to purchase another property.I intend to use both options in order to achieve my goal of 1,000 units.