If the lease maturity is too far out, enforce the visitor provisions in your lease (mine allows no more than 14 days) and send notice to quit or eviction will be filed. 

The trick here is to get a signed deed and wait to file it.

If they filed a claim (which they did notin that case) how would you protect yourself?

File with the courts.

an idea: on your laptop: create a folder, and in that folder create files by categories, then create as many files, subfolders as you want, keep organized, and you can even search for key words in the future!

***Fake mortgages are being filed against properties in Cleveland and they are targeting out of state investors.

There are also additional costs of operating and maintaining an LLC, like separate bank accounts, annual report filings, tax filings, etc.2.

If your holdings are small (i.e. a couple of SFH), the cost of setup companies, annual filings, etc. may simply not be worth the cost.

Get into the routine of entering them as soon as bills come in or putting the bills in one location, entering them once a month and writing on them that they were entered/paid, then filing them. 

I think if it's vacant 30 days, then a homeowners or landlord policy will deny any claim filed.