There are times when you can elect a "stock" purchase to be treated as an "asset" purchase allowing you to reset depreciation.At times you do a stock purchase (buying the entity instead of buying the assets) when assets are immovable such as a Medicare Cert or a defense contract, or some other intangible.

We're looking for a house that we will take care of and treat well without being nickel and dimed from a landlord who has no pride in their rental. 

As far as the other units most policies have "building and ordinance" clauses which proved some coverage if you have to update to "Code" but if the other units aren't damaged and are still up to code I wouldn't think there would be an extra coverage provided.I urge you to go into the process treating the insurance company as a partner not as their going to screw you no matter what :). 

Treat it like a first home loan...

You as the landlord will still need to have due diligence on who you rent to and you need to be fair and not treat that property any different because of the area meaning - keep it safe (livable), updated, and be just as available to the tenants needs as you would be to an A class area.

I see it sold not 4 years later for low 800s.. doing nothing to it.. sometimes certain markets just treat you well..

You are a landlord and have to treat it as such.Insurance and taxes typically only go up, so make provision in your lease agreement to make sure that the lease payment is sufficient to cover the probable increase.

That said, an LLC could elect to be treated for US Tax purposes as an S-Corporation or a Corporation. 

I don't like the tax treatment though since it's treated as ordinary income.

I am just starting my REI journey so I cannot speak from personal experience on what I have done, but I used to practice corporate law and a LLC definitely serves a purpose.One thing I have not seen mentioned (though I might have missed it) is that you have to be careful not to co-mingle personal assets and you must treat the LLC as a truly separate entity.