The LLC plan to avoid lawsuits is a construct from people who charge to set up LLC's which fails to tell you: annual fee for LLC filings, extra costs for extra tax returns, total need for an advisor CPA.

Personally, I always avoid commingling funds. 

Avoid paying broker fee's or points especially if you have good to excellent credit. 

I could possibly bring in a partner, but would I just looking for someone with a full time job to fill a void in the eyes of the bank? 

So I want to make sure I could avoid any stupid mistakes that would cost me heavy down the line.

One source of cities to avoid is Neighborhood Scout's 100 most dangerous cities.

I'd like to avoid hiring a property manager (I've heard uniformly bad things about them, not to mention the cost), and things are pretty stable (solid properties with great tennants). 

Also any recommendations on how to avoid these frequent repairs?

You also avoid short-term capital gains by keeping the property one year and a day.

We avoid all tank gas systems if possible or plan to covert in the future.