I will also be doing all the cosmetic things you can think of: paint, flooring, bathroom reno, kitchen reno, so I am open to carpenter or design suggestions.  

I would designing, renovating and managing the property.

There's plenty of companies who design and install for contractors for reasonable prices.

Since I'm taking such a cash hit, I asked the sellers agent if they would be able to designate some portion of the sale price ($200k?)

I know REIGuard is easy and designed for investors.

Just go on fiverr and hire an interior designer in Romania for $10https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530-short-term-and-vaca...

The one big caution I would have for investors on the design is don’t make the room size too small.

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Second, in terms of asset protection, LLCs are not invincible, but I think what many don’t understand is that they are not designed to completely shield your assets from liabilities, on the contrary they are designed to contain and isolate liabilities. 

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