I'll involve a local property attorney if this works out; but I'm thinking the deed should go into a trust vs just being willed to protect myself as the investor.

One question i had after listening to one of the podcasts and reading about the importance of avoiding "breaking the coorperate vale"  is how does one protect their portfolio of rental properties that they've acquired using the house hack/fha loan method? 

This is all about asset protection and keeping your personal assets as safe as possible.

Our responsibility is to do everything in our power not to lose it, even if it means you lose money in a deal to protect theirs. 

From their view, this is 5 rentals that you wholly own - the properties as a separate entities is disregarded, you are essentially moving money from one pocket to the other.If each of these rentals is in it's own LLC and this is for liability protection... 

Just the structure to protect yourself on the deal won't be worth the 1/6 out or the claim of what you will get which will not materialize.

Solid cash flow ($100+/door/mo) will protect you from many unexpected events and at this point anything is unexpected since no one has a clue what is going to happen in the next few years (or even the next few months). 

HOWEVER, I have a $20,000 reserve, strong W-2 income, no debt, the house is newly renovated and won't require much maintenance for the next 5-10 years, and other things in place to protect me. 

That would either be cash money out of your pocket, equity from your property (tapped through a HELOC, HELoan, or a refinance), or cash money from somewhere else (private equity, a personal loan, etc).So basically, it's either going to have to be paid by insurance or from cash/equity.Regarding the LLC - I've generally understood this to be a good move, more for legal protection than credit score optimization. 

Find a great agent (I have one).If you decide to partner on the deal, draw up a Joint Venture agreement, or a joint LLC with an operating agreement to make sure you both are protected, and what to do to exit the partnership.