You can purchase an investment property in your name and protect yourself by putting an umbrella insurance policy in place.

Things like:- limits of Liability of $1,000,000 per occurance- additional liability limits in an Umbrella policy- having them name you as an Additional Insured and requiring 30 day notice of cancellation- requiring that they hold you harmless and indemnify you if there is a claim- making their policy PrimaryThere are a lot of other things that can be required and what you ask form will depend on what is available, cost, and how it will impact getting a tenant.Talk to your Agent about what protections (alarm, fire doors, extinguishers, etc.) you need to have in place as a landlord for a business with children there all day.  

No luck with either.I definitely want to cover all these properties (and maybe our boats and cars, too) with umbrella insurance.So:  Who do I call for umbrella insurance?  

I would say as a client it has very little practical implications under which umbrella an agent operates; the key issue is to work with someone who understand what you are looking to do, preferably has done it themselves and can advise you.

But I see what you are saying on the misc. charges that we will have to consider for the current townhome... like umbrella insurance, LLC (for asset protection), utilities, vacancy backup, etc. those would ideally increase the monthly expense by about $300 (or probably more).Seems like a TRICKY situation for us, I guess....

The big things are being able to have individual project areas with distince financial info, but also have an umbrella ability to see how they are all doing, with information about each partners investment across all projects or a single project.

The "50% rule" lumps vacancy, all actual operating expenses (debt service is not an operating expense), and all capital expenses (like a new roof) under the one "50% of rent" umbrella.

You can make new LLC's under the umbrella (original) LLC.

Will an umbrella policy adequately cover me if not?

A blanket umbrella policy of $1MM might accomplish what you need until you start building some major equity/assets.