This is bad advice and could expose you to significant liability. 

Maybe he's a crook and you'll expose him.

I also am exposed to lawsuit risk which I don't like.

Rustic exposed brick.

Rustic exposed brick.

In the event of a true disaster, just know you can't keep yourself whole.Basically, you're participating to save on pennies--via a normal insurance process--and to keep yourself exposed to any fat tails event. 

This entitles you to the income from the property without exposing you to liability.In a dispute regarding the property, the opposing party will only be able to collect against the asset of the Trust, the Trust property, which hopefully has limited equity.

I’ve also been reinvesting capital to help reduce my overall expenses by replacing existing oil furnaces in 3 buildings where I pay for the oil to individual propane heaters that the tenants will pay for their own heat going forward with.

One path is going solo by purchasing the property in your name using money outside your SDIRA, but remember, this might expose your personal assets to potential rental property risks.

Not owning your rentals through an LLC exposes you to more risk, even if you have an insurance policy on rentals.However, as a new investor, you may encounter some challenges and opportunities leveraging the LLC.