For Ohio state taxes, you start with federal adjusted gross income (AGI) as the baseline, so if your federal rental income is zero, Ohio also sees zero rental income to tax unless there are state-specific adjustments.Ohio doesn’t require you to isolate in-state rental gains if your federal AGI already nets them out.

That way:Each property or deal has its own liability shield (especially helpful if you're partnering).Your personal/family assets—like the house you grew up in—stay isolated from risk.It becomes easier to manage taxes, profits, and ownership interests across the board.For example, you and your wife could have your personal trust or family LP own the holding company.

Good point and worth being comfortable with the decision, and yes, you can isolate some dollars that will be protected against a lawsuit.

It is important to have the liability that can stem from your investment property isolated and compartmentalized.

Utilizing an LLC also isolates the presumption that real estate acquired is ordinary income activity to the LLC, and not tracked to you personally, which can be important if you plan to hold other properties long term.

Are we actually looking at permanent massive tariffs and trade isolation? 

@Marc Zak Using an LLC for each property provides strong liability protection by isolating risks to individual assets, with income and expenses flowing through to your personal taxes on Schedule E.

There was no apology or accountability.This isn’t an isolated error.

In my opinion, if you have investment properties you want to protect, or isolate from each other's liabilities, the LLC is non-negotiable right then and there.

I believe that, excluding "immediate deportations" of folks who cross the border and are immediately sent back, that the impact of deportations is small, and is largely isolated to the deportation of convicted criminals in jail or prison in mostly red states.