Good summary by @anthony dadlani, You objective is another factor, are you wanting to create a lot of cash to live on, or some cash with main objective mostly /wealth building/ asset creation, retiring early with a lot of assets, cash flow in retirement.

It is learning to recognize that opportunity and being able to do something with it that separates successful people from the masses.I didn't get this far by taking "massive action" or having a "wealth creation system" that these gurus try to convince you that you need to do/have.

Lot of people use self-directed IRAs but don't realize the tax on withdrawal, Required Minimum Withdrawal rules at age 70.5 or provisional income creation that would force you to pay 85% social security income tax.Life insurance is beset with problems too. 95% of the policies are no good.

A buddy wanted to rent a house so I ended up driving all over creation showing about 8 places and with broker split I am made about 175 bucks before gas and food spent along with time.

The other commenter are certainly correct the cash flow analysis is not attractive--as you framed it above, but there may be value creation available from the build and in the land zoning.

I don't know what the rents are in your market, but you may find it makes more sense to rent where it's cheaper and lease your new property.I'm a huge advocate of "buy and hold" for long term wealth creation, and I tell my investor clients that all the time.

Additionally, there are some tools available to you where you can bring a certain level of automation to that rental management process (ie. automatically syndicating a single listing to 10+ major listing sites, thorough tenant screening with full background checks, digital lease creation, automated online rent collection, and maintenance tracking).

(One options is "Corporate Direct" to assist with LLC creation) Haven't tried corporate direct but I'm looking at going through them in the future to assist with re-org of my LLC.After LLC is created get an EIN and get the business accounts created.Rule 1 though is never have a rental property under your own name. 

There are hundred of posts already on that subject in this forum, as a summary of the topics discussed about your same situation:Yes it is possible,LLC will not reduce your taxes but will create liability protection;using LLC has a cost (creation, maintenance, lending cost) and need to be properly used to avoid piercing its veil;you need to check with a CPA and real estate lawyer to discuss your specific situation;be aware of the high CA franchise fee for LLC and you want to discuss alternative solutions (like DST or other creative way to avoid it);be aware of the due on sale clause if you have a mortgage.

Flips seem to make the most sense for quicker income and cash generation and can turn into a rental if they don't sell quick enough, I know multi family can be great for longer term wealth creation though...