Better a bad tenant than a discrimination lawsuit in Portland.

A lot of times a lawsuit is filed when the statute of limitations is approaching. 

You typically need to justify it as something like an "in law suite"; no using the term investment. 

Try to hide it/fail to disclose it and you risk a future lawsuit.

Operating expenses also include advertising, vacancies, insurance, evictions, legal fees, court costs, lawsuits, capital expenses, damage done by tenants, etc, etc, etc.

. :)  How does having a property manager shield you from lawsuits (if at all)?

Will depend on several factors like the type of property, type of tenants, your risk tolerance, other assets you own, your estate planning, laws where the property is located, etc.Any lawsuits would be limited to the assets of the LLC and not your personal assets (assuming you run the LLC appropriately and the corporate veil is not pierced).

It seems once a month I get that tiny lawsuit card in the mail informing me that xyz company is getting sued for not asking if they could text me first.

We filed a Class Action lawsuit that went on for 5 years.

 Law suit mid transaction.