First you have to decide what your reason for investing is So, Decide which kind of investor you want to be (SFR, Commercial, Land, Tax Liens, Passive, HML, Multi-Family, Notes, Fix & Flip, Buy & Hold, "Subject To", apartments, duplexes, assisted living, REOs, Foreclosures, Short Sales), etc.

Thank you all for the support and great information.

Does anyone really get into law sue or this kind of LLC setup is overkilled?

The answer is not a forum post, the answer is more like a stack of books, This is a very general question and hard to answer without more information.What kind of deal do you want to do?

Kind of as a way of giving back without running afoul of the law.

I deal with a local company that floats concrete under the foundation to fill the gaps and support the house.  

Then you should probably consider attending all the networking events you can get your hands on and afford.Do you need education/support/coaching? 

You can kind of extrapolate a cap rate based on this and it aint great. 3.5-6% would be my estimate based on how agreesively you model expenses.

I just got into a JV with an experienced contractor on a fix & flip and was wondering what kind of terms are common.

The seller's actually offering pretty good terms for that kind of asset.