( I'm also getting advised to put them in land trusts on top of the LLC's now $$$ to avoid issues with my loan companies & having them in LLC 'sI feel EVERYWHERE you turn you hear never have rentals in your own name  put them in an LLC In retrospect , I am wondering why I would not have been petter off to keep them ALL in my personal name with 1 giant 5 million dollar umbrella policy for liability  ........

Equity REITs (not mortgage REITS) are truly great though and have returned 1.5-2.0% more than SP500 over last 20/25/50 years in multiple retrospective studies, and are a great value purchase right now due to being beaten down by fast FED rate rise last 2 yrs, however to get best tax benefits, buy them only within a tax advantaged account like 401k/IRA etc as the big dividends are taxed very high at earned income rates.Good luck, wishing you and wife all the best on your investing journey :)               ps don't ever keep cash at a bank, park in your brokerage account and buy USFR, a wisdom tree ETF, pays 5.39% interest, holds only 8 week US treasury floating rate notes, so you don't need to worry about FDIC or SPIC insurance as only way US govt doesn't pay is if we get nuked, then you won't much care about cash yields, just non-radioactive water. 

At the time the market was starting to cool down from its highs, and I think we could’ve got it for less in retrospect.

In retrospect, I'd rather the passive losses be used the today than 10 years ago.Second, passive losses on one property can be applied to another property that doesn't have losses to zero out it's income. 

not a lawyer but I was under the impression that Texas does not recognize quick claim deeds, only warranty deeds, I'd look more into that. as far as the due on sale clause, everyone i've spoken and have done AMPS, sub-to, or title transfers, only one person has ever have a due on sale clause initiated cause in retrospect banks don't care how they get their money as long as they do.

(However, in retrospect, now that I see how they set everything up and organize it on the site I think that it would have been worth the extra cost to hit the easy button).

Obviously the former guarantees an extra $30 a month of income (in retrospect), but the latter is way cheaper and it will take, 50-66 months (4-6 years), to pay back.

That was my biggest concern going in, but in retrospect, I should have been much more concerned with other aspects of the deal. 

We eventually sold this Arizona house 11 years later and made a lot of money, but in retrospect we should have kept it.

BUT our daughters Physician Assistant friend (just moved back escaped from NYC) needs a rental & loves the area so it maybe yet another addition to the portfolio.In retrospect our EXIT strategy has been to 'hand off' to others, (& their kids), properties that were becoming too much work.