I am going to give you some general rules regarding these areas. Take them as a rule of thumb and then go see an attorney and accountant and explain the specific details of your situation.

Here is your crash course on asset protection:

1) Don't hold property in your own name.
2) Rental properties are high-risk propeties and shoule be held in an entity
3) If you hold rental property which produces high amounts of passive income you could (if the passive income is greater than 50%) be considered a personal holding company. That is bad because you will get charged a personal holding company tax by the IRS.
4) If you put them in an LLC you can get protection for yourself and avoid the additional tax.
5) If you have alot of properties it might be good break up the basket of eggs a bit and put a few properties in each LLC.
6) If you are doing deals and flips most people use a corporation and more specifically a C-corp. You will be classified as a 'dealer' by the IRS and this is will be disadvantagous for taxation purposes if you have properties you are holding as investments.
7) Land trusts are only used to keep your name out of title records. They are NOT NOT NOT a barrier or seperate entity which stands between you and a piece of real property. A trust is not an entity but merely a private contract between the creator of the trust (trustor/grantor/settlor) and the trustee. The purpose is to hold property for the benefit of the 3rd person.
8) An entity such as an LLC, corp, LP, LLP, etc. can the beneficiary of the land trust. There is some unsettled law in the area of land trusts and not much state statute regarding them so don't be surprised if some court throws yours out.
9) By making the entity the beneficiary of the land trust you can avoid having your name of the public records thus making you appear broke on paper.

If you need more help with this please contact me. Best of luck and keep learning!

Warmest Regards,

Darius M. Barazandeh, JD/MBA

NOTE: Any material found on this discussion forum or email with Mr. Barazandeh is not a substitute for detailed consultation with an attorney and does not create an attorney/client relationship. Information contained within this discussion forum is NOT intended to be, nor should it be taken by the reader as legal, financial or tax advice BUT are for educational purposes only. If the services of a real estate attorney are needed please email Mr. Barazandeh or another attorney to learn about becoming a legal client.