Quote from @Michael Challenger: I have no qualms with hard money lending, but I need to learn more about the process and structure to these for typical deals so that I am more comfortable and in a position to reduce my personal risk and risk to investors as much as possible.

If the LLC and its income are entirely outside California, it typically does not require registration with the California Secretary of State (SOS) or payment of California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) fees, even if you reside in California.

You typically want to include those utilities because if unpaid they become liens against your property.

Holding company typically if you have multiple companies like a property manager, own property and other businesses. you will end up spending more per year on accounting and state stuff than what you make on your rentals. 

@Kris Lou Be careful with agents as 95%+ of them really only know how to handle owner-occupied transactions.We don't do biz in Indianapolis, so this is unbiased info we hope you find useful:Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Ensure you collect a proper security deposit (typically one month's rent in Florida) to cover potential damages.Your plan to increase rent next year makes sense given rising costs (taxes, insurance, and maintenance).

Furthermore, California has a very anti-landlord and anti-real estate investor government that can cause you all sorts of other problems as well. 

Then sort down to 3 or 4 areas you want to try to make connections in. 

Some investors look for cash flow and some look for appreciation and there are investors who need to merge the two in order for the deal to be considered good.I think identifying what sort of investor you are looking to become should be answered first. 

It needs to be replaced with a typical bedroom doorknob/lock so a locksmith would not be needed in the future.