Selling property to myself?!

[Joe Boggin]

after much research about LLCs and rental properties and umbrella policies I know the extremely conservative approach is to have each rental property in its own LLC. Assuming one was to do that with rental properties that have been purchased recently but are in one persons name, there needs to be a transfer

Philadelphia charges transfer tax 4% of the county assessed value or 4% of the purchase price. I own two properties and I might buy a third property but all of them are going to be in my own name because my LLCs have not been formed yet.  One property was purchased for 17,000 and the assessed value is 55,000. One property was purchased for 6000 on credit card and the assessed value is 42,000. The third property if it goes the settlement will be purchased for 17,000 but the assessed value is 54,000. Philadelphia redid their assessments last year after about 15 years. Some properties assessment went from 20,000 to 110,000!  

If I do a straight transfer I am going to pay 4% on the assessed value which is close I close to a $6000 just in transfer taxes just to have them in an LLC. Not to mention the cost of drafting the deeds and recording them with the city and if the charges on my CPA to form the LLC's

But if I "purchased" the properties my transfer taxes are 4% of the purchase price. I don't know how to purchase properties from myself? It seems odd. If my newly formed LLC purchases the properties from me at the same price I paid for the properties within the past 18 months I would reduce my transfer taxes by thousands. But how do you purchase a property from yourself?

I want my properties in an LLC because I want the asset protection and I want the layers between myself and my rental units but I don't know how to set this up without greatly impacting my reserves!!!