How do you prevent from piercing the corporate viel if you aim to deduct expenses that have come from your personal credit card (home office, travel..etc)

Many tenants will act (pay) to prevent an eviction filing since even a dismissed eviction can hurt your credit and make it difficult to rent another apartment.

The most important thing to do is make sure to buy at the right price and maintain sufficient reserves to do preventative maintenance. 

Or should capital always be my first priority to prevent people from taking advantage of me?

Go over exactly what frustrated and drained you the most, and think about what you could do to prevent it next time.

You may want to consider the near South Side versus the far southside.Regarding getting taking advantage of, where a property is located won't prevent getting taken advantage of.

This actually aids in preventing fraud vs the mortgage system.  

What are others doing to prevent them from freezing?

Just want to offer you my 2 cents in case it helps prevent any down the road problems.

There is some special terminology for sweat equity partners in an LLC which would prevent triggering a weird tax event since you don't have any money in the LLC but are eventually getting something for it.Always get everything in writing, including details on what happens if you want to sell, someone dies, etc.Good luck!