You must fully understand the market that you're investing in -- that has to be first and foremost. Sounds to me like you've already got a decent handle on that. If multiplexes are not to your liking - then absolutely stay away from them.
LLC's -- Yes and no. If let's say you already had all the properties -- and you bundled them into one LLC and then sold shares in the LLC to investors (if they were willing to buy them) it COULD work... but multiple properties like that in one LLC would become unwieldily. What if you wanted to just sell one bleeder - or one that had an outsized gain etc. Too many issues there. So YES -- it would be better to have one property within one LLC. The problem with that is that a lot of the profit/cash flow would be burned with accounting and regulations etc so what would be the point.
LLC's are better left for larger investments where you need a larger pool of cash/investors and the cash flow etc can sustain the legal requirements.
All these really are is a way to borrow the downstroke and improvement cash at a % - from "others" - while picking up a management fee and your 51% of the upside without a lot of cash out of your pocket. The investors put up the down etc. BUT ----- management has a lot of up front out of pocket expenses before they ever get to package "the deal". The LLC needs to be set up - prospectus production - accounting - up front earnest money - and blah blah blah. AND more importantly -- you'd better know who your investors are going to be up front. You don't do a deal like this and then go begging for investors! So there is a lot of work etc to get to that point.
I've looked at two deals in the last 3 months -- one in Tucson with $100K per share minimum - and one in the Bakkens with a 1MM minimum that was new construction. Both of these are multi million dollar deals. They both were at 7% return annually -- and of course your share of the upside if any and the tax offset depreciation along the way.
I turned them both down because of the idiots in congress and the POTUS -- since I don't know what the eventual tax changes - if any - are going to be. These kinds of investments are terribly illiquid and as an individual investor - you have ZERO say so. You're just along for the ride.
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