best way to protect myself???

[Account Closed]

So I am a greenback when it comes to investing in real estate. My plan is to take out an equity loan against my personal residence for a low rate @ 30 year fixed rate. I was thinking of taking $40k and purchasing a duplex for $18k (generate $800/mon) and a single family residence for $15k (generate $500/mon) and use the residual cash for emergencies or repairs. Now I work Full-time as a firefighter and have a pension, house, and other personal belongings to protect from potential lawsuits. On a liability standpoint would liability insurance be enough to protect myself from losing my assets or should I put the houses under a LLC? If so, do I put them under 1 LLC or separate? Is there a better way someone else knows? What about if I get into more properties, is there a way to consolidate everything but separate the liabilities from each property? In Ohio here...

[Michael Evans]

@Charles Press: Finally someone who understands the importance of keep each piece of real estate separate. There is a simpler and less expensive method. Instead of having a separate LLC (and cost) for each piece of property, put each property in a land trust and have your real estate LLC as the beneficiary of each land trust. Just don't have the same LLC be the Trustee. Have this be your real estate attorney. You will learn the importance of hiding your ownership of the properties as you accumulate more of them. you will become a bigger target for lawsuits as you grow bigger.