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

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.  

Building relationships with experienced individuals in the real estate community and offering value in return is a fantastic strategy for learning and growing in this field.

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

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

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. 

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.”

Essentially my idea would be to sell 1/2 my interest, pay off the existing loan, and be "partners" with this person as long as there is a defined exit strategy.