Pay special attention to #4 and #5.An LLC is useful for two things: anonymity and legal protection.

If you do, work to protect it! 

I've recently switched over to ***********.com and I really like their services.

This gives much better diversification protection across geographies, asset types, strategies, investment subclasses etc. versus putting all the eggs into one basket.The downside is that it's not for everyone, and a person has to be comfortable with turning over control to someone else.

How we protect our buyers is with the inspection, appraisal and financing contingencies.

Protecting yourself from any future issues will require a good understanding of the situation your house is in when you buy it.Tl;dr: crime here is relatively low, declining population numbers don't take students into account, properties are cheap, rents are high BUT be careful where you buy.This concludes my TED Talk, ha!

In the NE states, AKA tenant friendly states, I would always have a PM to help protect my interests.

It seems like I need to check further away from the DMV area.My feelings are if you want “cash flow” you should buy a bond (I really like the tips rate right now) there is next to no reason to buy real estate for cash flow, if you are going to buy you should buy with appreciation in mind, which is not to say that’s the route I’d go, I’ve been liquidating properties to put in stocks and money market funds over the last few years and u just did the math and I’ve come out well ahead, but just to say there are arguments for stocks/bonds, there are arguments for levered appreciation, but the cap rates pretty much anywhere aren’t worth it vs an inflation protected bond, especially since a 3/rd of inflation is real estate anywhere, you could get “cash flow” and inflation protection much easier through a tips.

What are you trying to protect yourself from?

The tenants in the 3 bedroom rental aren't in a protected class but I do not want to get in any kind of legal bind.