How many properties are allowed under one name?

[Dana N.]

My husband and I live in NYC in an rental apartment. We plan to buy a house for us to live-in and purchase 2 SFHs out of state for rental property (and more in future) Should we purchase our live in home first or the rental property?

I'm not sure how many properties we can have in our names. We do plan to form a LLC, but not sure how many properties can have under LLC.

As for the 2 investment rental properties, we plan to buy with cash and finance our live-in home.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

[Jon Holdman]

There is no limit to how many properties you can own.

If you're buying with cash, though, there are advantages to having an LLC own them. LLCs help with asset protection by fencing off the LLC's assets and your personal assets. You probably want to spend some time with an attorney that specialzies in asset protection to decide how to structure your entities.

[Dion DePaoli]

If you are going to pay cash for the rentals and finance the primary residence, I would suggest you do the financed property first and the cash properties second. When the lender underwrites you, the cash you hold, which you later will spend on a rental property, will support you qualifying for the loan.

In regards to how many properties one can own in regards to being on title to. The number is infinite. There is a limitation on how many properties that are financed which conventional financing will allow and still finance a new loan, which might be what caused your question or confused you. That is seperate from ownership.

You can put as many properties you want in your name or in the name of the LLC you open. There is no limitation to that. There may be tax and liability reasons in some instances which influence how many you group into the LLC or personal name but that is about it. There is no legal restriction on how much you or your company can own.

[Dana N.]

Thank you Jon Holdman and Dion DePaoli. Information was helpful. I will discuss with my husband as to what we should do first. I thought obtaining the cash property for passive income would help towards the financed live-in home.

Thanks again.

Dana

[Brie Schmidt]

@Dana N. - I see where you would think that. But, you cannot use rental income on your mortgage application unless you have 2 years of landlording experience on your tax returns.

I would finance the OO first then pay cash for the NOO

[Kizzy Robb]

@Brie Schmidt - Hi, if you can't pay cash for either which would you recommend doing first?

[Brie Schmidt]

That would depend on your finances. To buy a OO unit you need 5% down for a FHA and 20% down for a conventional and you need 3 months of payments in reserves. For an investment property you need 25% down for conventional and 6 months payments for reserves.

Assuming you have the cash to go either way it would depend on what you could get in your area for what cost. Where I am at it is cheaper to buy a MF than a SF

[Ali Boone]

I recommend buying rental properties first. The prices are getting higher by the minute, lowering the returns, so the sooner you buy the better! Where are you looking currently?

I wouldn't worry about LLCs right now. You can get tons of info on using those here (more in the comments than the actual article)-

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/08/17/rental-properties-llc/

You can own as many properties as you want. Mortgages are what limit you more than anything but if you are paying cash, you're fine.