Out of State Investing and Asset Protection

[Fernando E.]

Fellow BPers, 

Hope you all had an awesome Father's day celebration

I've been in BP for about 2 years now and I really appreciate the spirit of collaboration and help in this community in my investing career. Two questions I would love to get your input

1. I live in the bay area and will be investing out of state (OOS), I know by reading in the forum that Midwest is the place to go, I originally planned to go to Indianapolis however the multi family houses that I encountered are on the older side as such will have a higher cost of maintenance, the realtor I am working with setup my automated search in the 46201, 203, 205 ranging in the $120 - 190K range.  My question, where do you invest?  Is Midwest still the place to go for OOS? How about Arizona? 

2. Asset protection is key concept that I picked up from Rich Dad Poor Dad book "Unfair Advantage" by Rober Kiyosaki, and my limited understanding tells me that I should have an LLC to protect my personal assets from the property, that is a cool $800/ year here in California. If this is a great practice that will save me in the long run, I will bite the bullet and pay the cost however I wanted to get your input on the LLC.

Very much appreciate your input guys,

Fernando