Properties unable to be transferred to LLC. Looking for options

[Brian Berryman]

My partner and I have purchased 4 properties (all single-family homes) in the past 18 months (3 purchased 20% down - 1 at 25% down). The mortgage company we used was a referral from our realtor (who is great). The lender was also great to work with, but we're now finding it impossible to get the properties moved into LLCs that we recently created. 

So, I believe that we have a few routes: 

1. Keep the houses under our name, but we need to know the best way to keep our personal assets protected in the event of lawsuit. We have landlord insurance policies on each. Is that enough to protect us? 
2. Number one, but with the goal of refinancing at a certain point in the future. 
3. Refinance them. Since they were all purchased in the last 18 months, they likely haven't appreciated much. I'd be worried that the refi costs would wipe out a year's worth of cashflow, unless we'd be able to pull out cash. 3 of them were more or less turnkey, the 4th we bought at $45K and put another $15K cash into it. Cash flow is pretty good, but I don't know if comps would support what we'd need it to appraise for in order to refi. 

Are there any other options that I'm not seeing/considering? 

Thanks!

[Natalie Schanne]

@Brian Berryman - why is it hard to move them into llcs? It's easy to do it but you may not like the implications (loan could be called due, hard to refinance, etc.). You just need to sign them over to your LLC.

Personally I’d keep the properties in my name and get an umbrella policy for $1-2m. I was quoted $300/year for a $1m umbrella policy for 3 houses (2 rental) and a car.

You can also always move personal assets into a spouse’s name solely and retirement money can’t be touched. Then you want to load up the property with real or fake debt so it looks like you have no equity. It’ll take additional searching to find out that you really don’t owe bank of grandma $500,000 on the $300,000 home.