If you're going the umbrella insurance route, make sure it will cover you for several things including just the routine slip and fall (like mold or earthquake).

I have personally never met an owner that was sued and lost their investment(s) so I think the hype surrounding LLC and umbrella insurance policies is just that: hype.Talk to your CPA, educate yourself, and determine what protection is best for you.

Get umbrella insurance. 

I was going to go with an umbrella to handle the liability side.

If you do go that route, make sure you have great insurance AND an multi-million dollar umbrella on the building and yourself.

Good umbrella policy that covers each property and entities3.

You may want to look into an umbrella policy first instead depending on the equity you have in your properties.

You should use limited warranty deeds to transfer the rentals from your personal name into your LLC, put all rents into the business account and buy a good umbrella policy for liability protection.

Our first intuition was to get an LLC but we no longer thinks it makes sense for the following reasons:- Have to get commercial loans instead of residential, which have much higher interest rates- Have to get homeowners' and umbrella insurance anyway - we feel the risk of being sued while owning rental properties is lower than running other types of businesses if we don't cut corners on the rehab and have a good property manager - Large amount of filing and annual fees requiredAre we thinking about this correctly and is there another structure that would best suit us?

If you're going the umbrella insurance route, make sure it will cover you for several things including just the routine slip and fall (like mold or earthquake).