We are at a point where we are scaling our operations first time and have external investors who are willing to put in $$.

I do love BOfA's online banking setup--very easy to use, easy to transfer from external accounts, etc.

I don't think it would give you much, as the properties are still in your name, and still at risk from internal (tenant suing you) and external (you doing something, like a car accident and getting sued) attacks.To avoid setting multiple LLC for each property, look into Series-LLC - you are in Texas so you have that options.You'll still want to setup a PM/Operations LLC, if you do the property management, so you can separate the active side of operations (leasing, hiring, contracting, etc.) from the completely passive side (Series-LLC as asset holding only entity).

So the increase in housing costs is a mix of:driven by people NOT extracting a living from the local economy, & instead being driven by external forces (i.e. speculation, outside investors, stock market appreciation).

So an external source offering financing should be welcome.

We had an attorney on a project at work; a database was suppose to deliver data to another external database. 

What is the humidity level external to the building?

Ok, that changes things - you need to be concerned with both "internal" and "external" attacks.

As long as rates stay low and no external influences kill the market, we should have some stability.

Generally, municipal (city) and county websites will contain either internal or external links to the local economic development organization or department.