Especially when you are talking about where you live and protecting your family.

G'Day everyone,It's your favorite Aussie here lolI've been living in the US for 5+ years now and there is one thing that hasn't stopped happening.And that is regular folks always trying to screw me on price because of my Aussie accent.From the mechanic trying to charge an extra $200 to get brakes replaced to contractors padding bids and doing stupid pricing.Does anyone have suggestions on how to better protect yourself and to avoid this stuff?

The contractor may not like it that you are requiring things but you need to protect yourself.   ** thought of one other thing.  

This lender put a lien on the properties (all three) to protect their risk.

Wasn't sure if there were any local or state laws that protected students, or if this was a gray area for "age discrimination".

(Your name) and/or assigns initial line of the purchaser in contract if you want extra protection​ sign it signature and or assigns make sure its an exclusive option, or purchase agreement​... land i use the option contract, anything else i use purchase agreement​ with exception of long term ...over 90 days

Fire protection and splitting heat could be deal breakers.  

Our trust attorney told us to meet with a business attorney as well as a tax professional in order to set up an LLC to put the properties in so we can protect our personal assets if need be.Our trust attorney is in CA, where FIL lived, however we live in AZ.  

You have to decide whether you will be transferring all properties under one LLC or each property under a different LLC (by having each under a different LLC you will be protecting them from getting affected by something happening to another property, i.e., a lawsuit).LLCs are pass-through entities, therefore they do not get taxed as a corporation.

@Derek Chiasson  sorry to say but dead give away to a scam.. there Is no such thing as a 1% insurance fee.You must have hazard insurance in place prior to closing... but if they are saying you buying some sort of insurance to protect the lender from default.. then your being scammed.A common one is to buy some phony policy from a company in Thailand they usually try to get 3 to 5k out of their victims for this one.Send me a PM I will help you through it..