Protecting business with LLC

[Ian Rogers]

Hey everyone, this is a pretty common discussion point on here and I have tried to search the existing posts to get the right answer, but at this point, I think I'd rather get assistance directly. 

Anytime I ever read or listen to anything regarding real estate investing LLCs always get brought up, but I cannot figure out how to do it properly. 

I currently own 4 SFH properties that are rented out. All of these were purchased using standard investor mortgages under both my wife and my own name. We created an LLC and want to use it to protect ourselves and to run our general business expenses through.

So I have the LLC, but the properties are still titled to us personally because we bought them and got the mortgage personally. We had to do this because the LLC has no financial history, so who the hell would loan to it.

This means there technically isn't a connection between our properties and the LLC and we are not fully protected. So I looked into doing a Warranty Deed to move the title over to the LLC which would protect us, right? However, this runs the risk of triggering the "due on sale" clause from the bank. My understanding is it also takes away some of the flexibility we have because the bank won't offer a refinance on the property unless we move it back under our name and leave it there for x months. Is that right?

So is this what people do to move properties under LLCs in order to protect themselves?