One says to not renew for just about any reason because the market is too strong to not have an excellent tenant.Another says to keep them unless it is a major issue if they have a history of paying on time and don't call for multiple small maintenance issues.I am the one who deals with filling the units and know that it can be difficult to find perfect tenants, but get irritated when someone likes to me.This has become a significant topic as we have two homes up for renewal with tenant issues.

Even then, they would all need to be on one lease not separate leases, which is somewhat difficult to set up.

Rodney Thompson We need to know what is the unpaid balance, total payoff etc on the loan.

It goes without saying that one must exercise caution and find a balance between liquidity - cash flow - and maximizing long-term returns.

Many times it is very difficult to evict tenants for issues other than financial non payment, especially if the tenants know the laws. 

IMO they have difficult jobs but what I tell my clients is that it's like substitute school teachers.... you don't know who you're going to get and you don't know what kind of mood they are going to be in. 

My reasoning is that I like having a lower required monthly payment in order to maximize my monthly cash-flow.Remember, you can always reduce your principal balance at any time with a HELOC (or an loan for that matter) simply by making a, "principal reduction" payment.

I think holding in your personal name with an umbrella policy may be similar risk wise to holding the property(ies) in an LLC but with perhaps lower overall costs after factoring minimum taxes and fees associated with an LLC.Perhaps an atty could tell you what the process would be for transferring properties into an LLC, but I don't imagine it would be difficult. 

Once you have tenants, it becomes difficult (but not impossible) to call that investment passive.

I'd say its the lack of houses that used to have some significant discounting and that difference in end loan pricing is what is making it difficult to find deals.