I would suggest getting umbrella insurance.

It makes you eat the bank's insurance, so to speak, because if you accept the cheaper price, and the buyer defaults, the bank knows it can get its ratio back out of the property. 

That falls right into line with some of the articles on here which suggested around $180/m per house.This house is in good condition and I still result with a fairly high budget.After all of my expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, pm, lease fee) I am left with a Net Cash Flow of $180/m.

I think holding in your personal name with an umbrella policy may be similar risk wise to holding the property(ies) in an LLC but with perhaps lower overall costs after factoring minimum taxes and fees associated with an LLC.Perhaps an atty could tell you what the process would be for transferring properties into an LLC, but I don't imagine it would be difficult. 

With your lease, make sure you have an early termination clause, pest control, pet fees,  and the # and limitations, also I would recommend requiring renters insurance.     

Taxes and insurance are high here in illinois to where we're paying 400 to 450/mo. 

Some brokerage wants you pay $2500 insurance in lump sum not to mention most have desk fee, technology fee, background checks.Suggest wait til you move to NC.

You should take into account the expenses that go along with it, taxes, insurance, are you going to keep the utilities on you will need heat if you don't want pipes to freeze or you will need to winterize the property, if you are financing you will have those costs.

Also, do not forget to have seller pay for title insurance.

Here’s one I’m asking as a renter, though it’ll also be good to understand once we have rental properties:My annual lease renewal is coming up, and I’m now required to have $100k of renter’s insurance and to put the landlord on the policy.