Ideal situation for Rental Income Properties

Hi all, I apologize for the newbie question. What is the ideal way to setup legal entities for Rental Income Properties. I know that you are protected well under LLCs that are holding companies. 1. Should I set one up for each individual property that I own/buy? 2. To maximize benefits and writeoffs, should there be another company or corp that owns all these LLCs, such as a mother Corp. If this is true, do you lose legal protection? 3. Can you transfer an "owner occupied" property to your LLC or create a new one to hold it? 4. What is the best way to smoothly transfer these properties to an LLC? TIA. -John Mr. Vodka