The owner doesn't really benefit much except for not having to pay a mortgage anymore?

This is our 'learning' phase.- Financing: Starting with cash but hoping to secure loans for future investments.

The mortgage is currently under my name, so I’m unsure what benefits, if any, I’d gain from using an LLC in this situation.

There might be some added tax benefits for this if you add in depreciation to help push you to a lower tax bracket. 

They can help you with tax planning at the beginning of the year to help ensure you are taking advantage of as many tax benefits / incentives that you can.

Hey Tim, Under IRS Publication 523, as a military member on qualified extended duty, you benefit from an extension of the “2 out of 5 years” rule to “2 out of the last 10 years” for excluding capital gains on the sale of a primary residence.

For no reason that will benefit you. 

- do I NEED real estate agent here in this phase then? 

Law enforcement would benefit greatly (as will taxpayers) from even a cursory examination of Emergency Business Relief based on the dollar amount involved and more thorough understanding of the owner, Ron Fossum, documented history of financial fraud.Reg D filings for Marco Santarelli, Another Entity, and 82% Returns:A search of the SEC database confirms that Norada Capital Management, not Norada Real Estate Investments, raises money from investors.

That was my whole reason for the post, trying to figure out how to use my sizeable retirement account to my benefit to grow my business of owning/managing rentals.