Best protection for mini portfolio?

[Kevin Andujar]

Good Afternoon,

I have a few questions in regards to real estate and ownership. I currently own and live in a house with my wife. We are both on the mortgage and title. We have been working on refinancing for the past couple weeks and I came up with the idea that only one of us should be on the mortgage and title. Reason for this is so the person not on the mortgage and title can take advantage of the first time home buyer benefits in the future. I believe it has to be after 3 years. The issue we are facing is I am supposed to take ownership of my parents 2 houses and they will be under my name. I think we just want to protect ourselves and our assets as much as possible.

The two houses are located in Perth Amboy and are both multi-family homes fully rented. They both currently have home insurance but none of the tenants have renters insurance. I really didn't know about it till now but I am not even sure if they can get renters insurance since they are not US citizens (correct me if I am wrong). Aside from that I considered creating an LLC and having both homes under an LLC. After reading yesterday I discovered that it could also be smart to get an umbrella policy with the reasonable limits for that extra protection. I like the umbrella policy approach because it allows me to do a cash out refinance on the 2 properties without having to get a commercial loan like you would under an LLC.

I know this is not an insurance agency but would it be smart to get an umbrella policy to cover ourselves and the 3 properties and potentially another property in the near future?

Should I have my tenants sign a waiver in place of them not being able to acquire renters insurance?

What is our best option for protecting ourselves? Thank you in advance.