She saw patterns that raised red flags when I would have never known they were red flags until I had gotten burned a few times.

And four total shows a pattern of disrespecting the law. 

There is no pattern or bad behavior.   

@Joseph PuglieseIf your business is accrual basis and previously accrued the revenue and included it in taxable income, yes you could write off the bad debts.If cash basis, you don't get to write off revenue you never received as you never were taxed on it in the first place.There are extremely limited exceptions to this, particularly if you're cash basis and recognized the revenue under constructive receipt, however I suspect your fact pattern is not that complicated.You can deduct your normal operating expenses of the rental.Your CPA is best equipped to help you deal with this.

But a foreclosure, two bankruptcies show a very clear pattern of not paying debt or obligations, which means when you don’t get rent and they stiff you’, you’ll never see that money.Hard pass.

Regardless of which state you organize the LLC in, if you're doing business in California (which based on the fact pattern laid out above you would be), you'd be required to register with the California Secretary of State as a foreign LLC and pay annual filing fees. 

Since I'm in a holding pattern until we move, I've been researching the BRRR method, listening to the podcast, reading posts on the forum (most of which are over my head right now) , and attending the webinars.  

I've never been able to discern patterns. 

Both died in their late 50's after years of suffering COPD.They had the walls completely covered with that old Italian felt patterned wallpaper so after removing that & using several layers of shellac the smell was gone.

He has a pattern of holding people's money and never paying back or repaying in small installments.