Our lawyer provided us with the projected fees for both options and a Series LLC was extremely expensive.What is the ideal number of properties / total asset value for an LLC?

The makeup of the council is extreme far left.

I do not have any relationship with them but do know they seem to be extremely knowledgeable. 

Also the information provided and the links are extremely helpful.

This market is extremely tight and you might have to adjust your math to make things worse. 

I extremely passionate about real estate investing for the focus of my sole income to provide for my three  children.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.PM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

@Andrew Jessup It's extremely common for the family trust to initially own the real property and then to transfer ownership into an LLC for additional liability protection, with the LLC owned by the family trust. 

Decent purchase price to rent ratioSome of the areas I'm looking into are:HaywardSan LeandroOakleyConcordPleasant HillBrentwoodTracyMantecaTurlockModestoSacramentoMy concern about some of the areas specifically in the Central Valley (often recommended here on BP) like Fresno, Turlock, etc, is that looking at numbers the appreciation doesn't seem to meet the mark for me (purchase price to rent ratio is decent, but equity isn't very good), so I'm generally focused more on the SF Bay Area.Any recommendations on cities or areas would be extremely helpful. 

So knowing scope would help narrow down on risk mitigation tactics.I guess at the end of the day, it all comes down to knowing what is needed, order of operations, and having as close to true quotes from reputable contractors in hand.Beyond that, really knowing all that is needed and having those extremely detailed scope of works for each trade before you get your bids.