The most important thing is having a legal agreement that protects all parties and spells everything out.

If someone sues or gets hurt protects all of you too, it wise for you to google pros and cons on LLC, ref inside real estate.

If you would like more protection, require them to get an Umbrella for an additional $1M-$2M. 

LLC's do not provide protections against lawsuits.

For 28 storage units, I am wondering how you can afford to provide 24-hour protection and access to units for your tenants since I imagine tenants like to have access no less than Monday through Saturday between 8 am and 5 pm and that has to be a lot of labor costs, payroll taxes, etc.

There is a Meetup in Nassau county meets once a month Real estate rocks setup by Suzanne Player if your interested. 

That protects them in case you back out/can't close, they don't have to come out of pocket with the homeowner. 

Anyone have experience protecting their property from a creek that overflows in major rainstorms? 

Be sure to get estoppels to protect yourself.

Are most investors in this situation just getting conventional loans and then getting an umbrella insurance policy to protect themselves?