Need some recommendations

[John Plumstead]

Would love advice on finding an attorney and CPA? Would also love any insight you might have.

My partner and I plan to grow and scale a business together and want to make long term decisions early on. We are currently operating on a handshake agreement and have two rental properties. We're both comfortable with our position, but we want to position ourselves for growth in the future. Our goal over the next 3-5 years is to purchase long term rental properties. We plan on putting down 10-20% and hopefully financing the remainder for each additional acquisition. We will also continue to use our VA entitlement when we can. We need professionals comfortable with skype/phone conversations.

Questions we have
Should we operate as a partnership? Should we establish an LLC? Are there tax benefits to an LLC, or is it just for the liability protection? If it's only for the liability protection, can't we just use an umbrella policy? When we buy our next property, what is the best way to buy it (he buys it, I buy it, our company buys it, we buy it under both of our names)? How can we get our two current properties into both of our names (currently only in one of our names)? How many loans can we get using traditional financing? If this is capped, should we continue to buy in our individual name, so we can buy more? We want to use VA loans when possible, how will this effect our business structure when acquiring new properties?

Thank you in advance.