Should I form a Management Company for our Assets?

[Sarah Humbargar]

We are soon to have 4 units between 2 properties and at this time I self manage everything and will continue doing so into the foreseeable future. We've received 2 different legal recommendations and are trying to decide what our best option is. First was to just put each property into its own LLC and have your leases under the ownership company. Second is to put each property into its own LLC but have a contract with a separate management company, which we also own, to further reduce liability. I am assuming that the second option only becomes necessary when we have a lot of units and we are still self-managing. Are there other better options I am missing? What's the best approach with a small number of units, with the intent to grow our portfolio?