Well, I've been doing this for 10+ years, but just slightly on the plus side and we've seen catastrophic economic decline right smack in the middle of that term so, no, it didn't go as I planned, but if you buy the houses right, shore them up with good financing, then dig your fingernails in and hold on, you should do pretty well.

Also LLC will not provide any tax advantage from rental income stand point, it protects you from your personal wealth in case of unexpected catastrophes with your rental property. 

I agree.The fact is for 99.999999999999% of us, the dollar could completely collapse, no longer be the reserve currency anywhere and as long as all of our commerce remained within this country we would not notice anything catastrophic other than the hyped up news media reporting the end of civilization and then wondering why civilization continued on.Nations rise and fall.

Seeing that this is a real estate conversation I won't dive in to the politics that have Detroit facing catastrophic failure.

I run all my insurance with high deductibles, my view is that its there for catastrophe, not convenience.My deductible is usually $1k++, and without the fridge the appliances dont go above that. 

Unknown expenses are usually a result of poor/deferred maintenance, or something catastrophic.

I'm very interested in cutting my insurance expense and hassle, but with one catastrophic event I could lose $70-80k.

If water is coming over the foundation as you say, it sounds like you need to get a bobcat (or if necessary a big Cat) in there to reshape and change the slope of the ground to direct water away from the house (or, if this was a catastrophic, "100 year" flooding, contact your insurance company).

With the way it's going now, assuming no catastrophes, and debt paid down, I'll be 740+ by 7/1/2017.  

Along with the potential to be open to housing students themselves (even though, the damage based on my experience can be catastrophic).