I am looking to start my real estate investment journey but it is difficult starting out in the bay area.

Ask @Dave Foster for any 1031 questions…But I’d start with these…Are you planning to pay all cash for the replacement property since it will probably be either impossible or expensive to get the loan in the LLC’s name.Why are you putting the property in an LLC?

Another thing to be mindful of if you use a bank/commercial lender is the pre-payment penalty many include in their loans if you choose to refinance (many have descending penalties in years 1-5 that can start upwards of 4-5%).

This post is for seasoned investors.You are starting out and do not have a mortgage, yet.

This would be our first investment and like many starting out, I want to properly educate myself by learning and doing as I go on with this project. 

Not that its impossible to get creative financing or that its bad to start investing I'm not saying that by any means at all the earlier the better but the safety blanket is small with no reserves for an expensive learning experience which in this industry is likely. 

Started a reading journey in November of 23 that changed my trajectory.  

I would think that might start to have an impact.

It's great to hear about you starting your real estate journey.

I started by placing my 1st rental property into an LLC (for this example, *JOHN SMITH PROPERTY INVESTMENT, LLC*).