You need to know what these are for your local area, ask a realtor or your title company, to be able to identify who owns the property.You might call/visit the local government building or planning department to find out two things; 1) Who owns that parcel and 2) what covenants/operating and use agreements, if any, are in place that control the use and maintenance of the property.

The LLC would have an an operating agreement that lays out the responsibilities of each member, along with the capital contribution.  

In defining small, some are one-person operations with the same person often also the owner operator of the related operation where all the monies being loaned are from personal accumulation.

He has operating income from his rentals that may carry higher tax burden than interest income from a note. 

I will say, NJ is a gamble with crazy property taxes, but there are loads of people making it work.

This being a 4,000 s.f. 7br/4ba1900's SFH that was being operated as a legal duplex (major fixer).Being in Vermont, with the Vermont Land Gains Tax, my Vermont investments are scheduled for exit at least 2-3 years down the road to minimize that tax.

I wish you would just trust me on this, but I'll share a couple of errors I made.1) Operation shut down.  

How Often Do You Update Your Operations Manual?

I plan to use my background in accounting, finance, and operations to begin my journey and I look forward to leveraging BP to assist in achieving my goals.  

If you are doing it with a friend its a multi-member LLC  not a single member LLC (unless you just want to do a JV agreement) so your operating agreement should spell everything out.With that being said there are definitely advantages to having an LLC such as financing and sometimes tax related advantages but  if you are not raising money its may not vital to have an LLC though your own situation may vary.