Rentals - LLC or Personal Name?

[Kathryn Bennett]

Hey! Seeking some advice as I see conflicting information on this topic quite often. Let me give you some back story:

I purchased my first home in 2016. Lived in it for over a year and then rented it out. I still have this and it has been consistently rented since 2018. I owe around $195k and it's worth around $260k (just a guesstimate based on internet data). 

My boyfriend owns a townhome that he bought in 2016. His family lives in it now. It was appraised at 244k in October (it's increased already since) and he owes around $180k.

We just bought a primary residence together and still have the other two properties. 

I work for a mortgage company. I just started with them in Sept and my income cannot be used until Sept 2020 for qualifying purposes with traditional financing. 

We are looking to expand our rentals and are looking to possibly get into duplexes/triplexes.

Because we aren't able to use my income in the traditional sense and we own 3 properties between the two of us, what would your recommendation moving forward be in terms of forming an LLC or continuing to get properties in our personal name (as much as we're able considering traditional financing won't use my income).

We are still learning/figuring it out but one thought we have would be to convert our properties or some of them into an apartment complex long term.

We could get HELOC's on our properties to use. I am not sure if I can because of my employment history, but he could.

Recommendations would be greatly appreciated. We are in VA.