Final question: should I shop multiple hard money lenders?

I don't ever plan to make this a full-time gig as my career as an engineer is fun and rewarding, but I like the idea of owning multiple properties and the financial flexibility that comes along with that.My wife and I purchased a new construction home in 2009 and took advantage of the $8k homebuyer credit.  6 years later we are selling our home at roughly a $15k loss, which is certainly unpleasant.  

The rest being unheated storage, garage/workshop, loading dock (yep, that's right) and an open-on-the-end car port.

I own multiple properties in 2 different states and 1 property aboard.

However, a gardener who has done multiple jobs for me recently bid one at a reasonable rate.

In this priticular situation we will be flipping the home so I'm not as concerned about any due on sale clause the sellers mortgage holder might have but I will still go through the formality so I have multiple exit stratugies.

Multiple crabs will pull each other back in the minute one gets close to escaping.

I'm not anywhere close to owning multiple properties, but in preparation for this goal one day, should I plan to have a certain number of properties before creating a LLC or does it make sense to create one whenever we move out of our first home and make it a rental property?

I own multiple rental properties in Colorado and have a great lender here, but they do not do out of state loans.  

This one is a new location, would need another managing company....just seems like I am dealing with too many property managers.How do you manage them if you have multiple managers?