All the usual creditor protections are thrown out the window depending on which BK court has jurisdiction.  

We see so many different entity structures for rental portfolios in our REI Bookkeeping Firm.Ensure it's simple enough for you to easily abide by the structure in your day-to-day operations (which your question is getting at).We've had bookkeeping clients with complicated structures that apparently protected them to the maximum degree but they didn't abide by the structure when conducting transactions in their business daily (lots of unintentional commingling).

I'm not certainly no expert on asset protection but I'm unsure of the downside of having them in an LLC.Regarding lawsuits, I will tell you that insurance/LLCs are probably both great for protection but are secondary to doing a good job with property management.

Just make sure the builder’s risk policy is in place while the property is vacant and under construction to protect your investment.

A well written management contract should clearly spell out what is expected of both the PMC and the owner, to PROTECT both and avoid misunderstandings.

Instead of increasing rent, I would look at having the security deposit increased to protect against wear and tear.

Also, @Joshua Stanton, how do you protect yourself/assets if you can not deed the property into an LLC? 

To protect yourselves, ask the sellers for written documentation confirming that the tenant is back-paying.

Depending on what type of relationship you have with your lender you can have them disapprove the loan to protect your EMD. 3.

Gov. mandates, laws, regulations, these are tools to control WHAT the product/service is, think safety focused. mandating no lead in toys, or fall-arrest gear for roofers, things like that, THAT is where it works.