Hey Anthony, I am a Real Estate Agent and investor based in Columbus and personally grew up in Cleveland .

This also allows for a newer investor to network, partner, and build relationships with lenders early on, so they are not stuck trying to find lending options that will consistently throw them high interest rates and higher origination fees. 

I was wondering what everyone's experience with establishing a legal entity for REI has been like, and when do you recommend a person to do so?

I have not done too many deals in your market, and I anticipate things are nuanced depending on the property type and condition and based on the personality of the owner....BUT it is common and customary in my world, which is usually retail/med office, for tenants to have at least some time of free rent during the buildout.We usually structure things as follows, and you can change the number of days around but this is traditionally what we at least shoot for when we have a tenant we are repping.- Lease commencement date is to be the 6/1/24 or when the landlord's work is complete. and we traditionally have penalties in place if the LL's work takes too long and pushes us past our initial timeline.- then we typically have "rent commencement" or when you start paying rent, to be the earlier of either 180 days following lease commencement or when you are open for business.  

It's hard for anyone to give advice on such a personal decision, but I'm almost always in the position of never selling.

The property is a great deal so I'm hoping to refi down the road in the event interest rates come down to a reasonable value, then maybe repay most of the personal loan at that time.

As I said, I think it can make sense to buy and hold real estate personally AND inside retirement accounts. 

I must not be the first one that is concerned about personal safety.Thank you!

There you go, there's your niche......The one thing I've noticed about (most) Realtors over my long relationship with them is this - they do not (generally) pay great attention to their clients, except when they are brand new.

The court defined as “where a person intentionally intrudes, physically or otherwise, upon the solitude or seclusion of another or his private affairs or concerns…if the intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.”