Best Structure For Tax Purposes?

[Harry Tommas]

Hey all,

First post on BP and I'm a relative new comer to RE investing so be gentle. Here's my current setup:
-a long held rental property (condo) in my name with a loan in my wife and my name jointly.
-a recently acquired two family rental property in my wife's name with a loan also in her name.
-Last year my wife and I filed taxes jointly when I owned only the condo.
-My wife earns a good income and I am not currently collecting any income although I plan to do so from the rental property income (as soon as I get our entity setup).
-I am focused full time on running our rental properties and growing our portfolio of property so I believe I qualify as a RE professional.
-We are using her income to qualify ourselves for all of our investment loans on properties we buy going forward.

Here are my questions:
-What ownership structure (LLC, Sole Proprietorship, or Land Trust) is best from a tax perspective? I'm leaning towards LLC or Sole Prop.
-Will I be better able to write off expenses if I transfer both properties into an LLC, or is an LLC unnecessary from a tax perspective?
-If there is no tax benefit to an LLC, should I hold both properties in my name, or her name for maximum tax benefit?
-When I start paying myself income, is there anything I should do/know about how I disburse it?

I am especially interested in how to maximize our ability to qualify for loans going forward by keeping her debt to income ratio low.

Thanks in advance folks, I'm glad to join the community!