I am doing personal improvements to my property as an individual, but the kind of equipment and materials I source are typically reserved for companies. For example, rental companies are unwilling to give me a semi truck unless I provide a company name etc. The soil analysis company won’t deal with an individual but happily work with a company. Note, I do not need to apply for credit with them, I’d pay cash/CC upfront.

For this reason, I am now considering to open an LLC; not for tax purposes, as I will never generate any income, just to be able to provide a legitimate company name in order to comply with the above businesses policies.

My home state of California charges high annual fees for an LLC, but I have seen there are others that have very low initial and zero annual fees. My understanding is that I’d just need to provide some sort of mailing address in that state in order to open an LLC.

Are my assessments above correct? Am I being too naive? Is there a particular state that makes it especially painless to open an LLC completely online for low fees?

I cannot imagine I am the only person that has this problem, are there easier solutions maybe?