If you have lived in the property for two out of the previous five years you could qualify for the 121 exclusion, where you get the first $250k ($500k if married) of the gain tax free.

For residential mortgage, an LLC needs two years of its own tax returns or occasionally, a local credit union where you have an account will ok it.The bigger question is about your partnership.

You can offset the passive losses from one rental against the positive income from another rental.Therefore, you will likely have a net $3,000 loss across all the three rentals which you would carry forward.If your depreciation was more than $3,000, you basically made cash-flow or rental income that was not taxed, which is good.Best of luck

My question is - is it more advantageous to have me own the business entirely so that I can capitalize on the tax deductions & tax refunds so that I can in turn contribute more capital to purchase future properties together?  

Plus to realize that appreciation it costs you money to sell, refinance, and potentially pay taxes on the gain. 

However, these are the ones most commonly used:Five-of-Ten-Year Test: You must have materially participated in the activity for any five of the past ten years.500-Hour Test: You must have materially participated in the activity or activities for 500 hours in the current tax year.Step 3: Calculation your participation hoursEnsure you are tracking your participation hours.

Use the purchase of rental property to offset taxes, not for cash flow.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51-tax-legal-issues-con...

From page 730 (emphasis mine): "All non-business tax deductions and exemptions that were temporarily suspended by the 2017 tax bill should be permanently repealed, including the bicyclecommuting expense exclusion, non-military moving expense deductions, and the miscellaneous itemized deductions.23 The individual state and local tax deduction, which was temporarily capped at $10,000, should be fully repealed.

Drawing money from an LLC for personal use can be done as an owner’s draw (for LLCs taxed as partnerships or sole proprietorships) or as a salary/distribution (for LLCs taxed as S Corps).