If it all goes south, are you ok with that and will you let it affect Thanksgiving dinner?  

Paying down the loan doesn't affect the entitlement.

I've previously made errors in investing and I do not want to repeat...so I'm hoping to get some input prior to going back in :-)  I have a fulltime job and a part time psychotherapy practice.My longer term goal is to make 5k per month for retirement.My medium term goal is to quit my job and do part time work. in order to to that, I have to pay back the $ I borrowed from by retirement fund or I have to pay major taxes.

I am interested to know how using a tax-deferred retirement account to purchase a rental would affect my ability to use depreciation.  

Go to real open houses (not even for houses you want) and repeat the process, learn the lingo, understand the process, at such a young age you will have to be twice as knowledgeable to be taken seriously.

I will repeat the others' suggestion: you would do well to have a real estate agent (or lawyer) assist with the proper paperwork the first time (at least).

How are the possibilities for getting bank loans/mortgages for another property affected by having such an LLC?

There's some strange and unexpected things happening with one of the GFIs in one of the units and it affecting a common house GFI in the basement that is wired off a separate panel.

At the same time I will be reluctant to help/respond elaborately to someone asking repeated thoughtless questions without doing any legwork on their end at all.

I may make a mistake in repeating it, but from one of the podcasts.If you have a bunch of power tools in your garage and you go away on vacation for a week.Class A neighborhood:  You leave the door open, your neighbor calls you two days after you left for vacation they saw the garage door open and shut it for you.