As Damian stated allot of contractors know it is guaranteed money , but some didn't like the strict labor vs material accounting, but it is nice and in a way protects you. 

It seems like it is coming from a place of good intention, but is not particularly well thought out and opens the door for a lot of serious issues.I fully understand the therapeutic and healing benefits of pets for certain people, but there are already protections in place for service animals as well as emotional support animals that protect this subset of pet owners so I don't really understand why this bill is necessary - seems like it will cause far more harm than good, and again, this is coming from someone that likes pets! 

I am looking to purchase my first rental property by year end and was curious as to what types of insurance I would need to protect my investment.

Now you understand that long leases are no hedge of protection for you they only benefit the tenant !

However, I don't like the use of insurance as the sole protection of your personal assets.

Yes, banks will finance such a deal in almost all cases, however, to protect their risk, they will underwrite it as if the taxes were paid to the purchase price (Or a %) even if they are reassessed much lower.

I am thinking of putting one my rental properties into a land trust plus LLC structure for privacy and asset protection.

If you really want to protect yourself, just partner with a family member and use their name on the LLC paperwork as the owner.

Get good contracts and LLC protection for that.

With this new agreement and forfeiting the deposit it doesn't sound like you were left with many, if any, protections or guarantees on how the property is returned.