If the deal works with commercial financing I would go the LLC route since that better protects everybody's long term interests.Congrats on getting that first deal!

I requested a Redemption of my funds from fundrise back in January and they won't release them.Here is what they said:Fundrise Advisors, in our capacity as Manager of the eREITs and eFunds, has determined that it is necessary at this time to suspend the processing and fulfillment of redemption requests.While under normal market conditions, we seek to provide investors with the ability to redeem their investments on a regular basis, during times of financial crisis or extreme uncertainty, it is absolutely critical that we suspend redemptions in order to protect the interests of all our investors.As Manager, we have an obligation to make decisions based upon what is best for the entire Fundrise investor community and must always put the priorities of the whole above any one individual.Fundamentally, Fundrise investors own real property, which is simply not liquid. 

With this corona virus scare and potential quarantine it could be a HUGE hit to all real estate agents/investors/ small business owners/employees and everyone else! With this potential quarantine tenants could be out ...

Protect your body.

You would think pieces of history like that would have more protections given to the owners should something like that happen.

If not I'd develop your relationship with a team via buy and hold and only pursue BRRRR once you find a solid partner or develop enough experience to protect yourself. 

Please help to clarify  the best approach and how to protect myself without an LLC entity. 

Any tips for protecting yourself on the legal side would be great too.

The advantage is a very stable and reliable income stream with tax advantages and inflation protection combined with appreciation (assuming you buy in a good location).

Placing a rental property in an LLC is mostly about liability protection.