It is an investment to be sure but I think it has been worth it in terms of preventing me from making some mistakes that I otherwise would have being a new investor. 

This is necessary to prevent your tenants from claw it back the next day or week.Personally I only accept checks and prefer 12 post dated for the year.

Have you thought about putting the minimum down required to prevent PMI.

I'm working on a deal and would like to tie it up to prevent sellers from shopping my offer.Thx.

This could have prevented lots of issues and streamlined the process for getting this property rented.

I plan on obtaining copies of the certificates for worker's comp for all employees but am always interested in knowing what/how to prevent mishaps.

Do partial releases with each draw, that prevents surprises at the end (you owe the gc $5k on his final draw, and you have subs that are owed $10k).  

Holding your primary residence in an LLC would likely have significant unfavorable tax consequences by preventing you from utilizing the $500k home sales exclusion available to married couples for capital gains realized on the sale of their primary residence as well as any homestead exemption that may be available to you in your state.

It takes time to get your license which prevents you from getting started.

The door armor is the biggest thing - between labor and materials it costs me about $150/door, but the most common burglery/robbery access in these neighborhoods is to simply kick the door in, and this prevents that.In general, neighbors who take care of their own homes are really glad to see a property renovated and taken care of, rather than have it taken over by someone who's going to let it go to ****.