D/b/a as management entity

[Catherine T.]

I am married, but own a single family home "separately" from my husband (quotations because he has marital interest). I purchased and financed the property in my name so as to limit his liability a bit and to protect our joint assets (a bit). I initially thought I would form an LLC and purchase the property through that, but realized I could not get conventional financing that way. So, I am currently in the "get comprehensive insurance with mega coverage camp" rather than the "form an LLC" camp. I have rehabbed the property, have failed to sell it and am now considering becoming a landlord.

Here's the question:  I am considering using a sole proprietor d/b/a as the property manager, and these are my reasons:

Record keeping

Separate account that wouldn't commingle with other personal funds

"Evidence" that the property management is a 'sole proprietorship" possibly removing my husband from that avenue of liability

D/b/a in our county is relatively inexpensive.  

This would purely be an exercise in keeping funds separate and potentially 'inching' away my  husband and some of our jointly owned personal assets from liability.  We live in a small town, and the tenant would know that I am both the landlord and the management company, in spite of D/b/a - so this is no effort to "fool" the tenant. I could have the record keeping/separate account without having a d/b/a - but wouldn't get the (relatively-weak-but-better-than-nothing) liability protection for my husband that way.

I realize that my husband could be sued as property owner in that he has a marital interest in the property, but he couldn't effectively be named as "landlord" or "management" if I organized the things the way I suggest.  I would still carry more than enough insurance.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your advice!