There's nothing preventing the seller/borrower from further encumbering the property or racking up liens or filing BK.

LLC's prevent you from getting FNMAE type financing where you can get rate locked in for full term of loan, like 20 or 30 years.

In return provide them with reliable people in your network so it's win-winTip #5: Get a Google Voice Number - Trust me you need this especially if you are posting ads for RentalTip #6: Preventative maintenance - MustTip #7: Be proactive and not reactive to your tenant's need.

The idea keeps coming up that we are going to end up paying a lot of money to bank in interest on that mortgage (~$100k), so it stands to reason that money invested in that would prevent us from paying this interest, saving us ~$100k let's say.

If I go ahead and buy investment properties now, the deeds in my name will prevent me from getting these first time buyer programs.

There is NOTHING practically or legally preventing you from changing title to a property, even if your lender doesn't want you to, but as @John Fedro said, the lender may have the right pursuant to a due on sale clause to "call the loan", which means you have to pay it off within a specified time or risk the bank foreclosing.

If I go ahead and buy investment properties now, the deeds in my name will prevent me from getting these first time buyer programs.

Its call JIT (just in time) materials.Helps to limit your risk and also helps to prevent the contractor from being tempted to doing anything silly either.At the end of the day, I think you're going to have a very hard time getting good contractors if you tell them they're not going to get anything up front.

It can prevent me from even starting things that I really want to do.

Most people, myself included, will not be comfortable answering that question, but perhaps we could address the root question.