Personal liability and personal umbrella policies may not pay for your negligence and court awarded penalties are always higher in cases of negligence of a sophisticated party.None of the above is legal advice I am a general lines insurance trainer consult your lawyer and a local state commercial insurance professional.Good luck

Lastly, I'm in sticker shock from the umbrella insurance quote I got from our State Farm rep (we've had everything...home/5 cars/son's renters) under SF for over 30 years...the $1m policy is over $1100 per year additional to what we already have.

Some would advise you to get an umbrella policy through your insurance company.

If you are worth Tens of Millions, that might not be the right case, but for the normal person, an umbrella policy on the properties of a few million should take care of the liability.If you are managing the property yourself, an LLC won't help you much, but if your a truely silent partner (normally this applies to multi-family) it might work.

And I would highly recommend you get an umbrella policy personally. 

Otherwise, just do what many other investors do and hold Title in their personal name, keep the property in good repair, and have insurance including an Umbrella policy.Hope this helps. 

For the insurance, I think I understand to have landlord policy, would it help to add an umbrella policy too?

I settled into the extended-stay motel and the bleak and dark Syracuse winter days and nights.This was not the umbrella-drink vision I was sold for investing in residential real estate.

And when you are not local you are even more likely to get taken advantage of.So my advice would be to find someone experienced in the city you want to flip in and get under their umbrella for a season.

I assume/expect an investor to be taxed under the Net Profit "umbrella" which according to the City of Philadelphia is taxed at 3.924% (Resident) and 3.495% (Non-Resident) see link > http://www.phila.gov/Revenue/businesses/taxes/Page...