CA Investor - investing out of state

[Eric Upchurch]

Hey BP,

I have a CA LLC (yay, $800/year!). I'm wondering if someone can give me an actual example of "what to do" or "how to do it" as I start buying investment properties out of state. I WON'T take it as legal advice, I'm just wanting specific examples of what folks are doing. WON'T HOLD ANYONE LIABLE.

I want to get/keep my properties in the LLC, but how do I buy them in/through the LLC in the first place? I have enough to pay cash for a property in say, GA, but is that the only way to buy through my LLC? To plant the cash in it, then buy the property outright? I'm assuming very few, if any, banks will LEND to a new LLC with no credit or assets.

Or can I finance personally (80/20) then transfer into my LLC? Avoid "due on sale" with land trusts or maybe discussing with the bank that this is my plan (look for one that is ok with it)?

Or should I pay cash personally, then transfer into my LLC (definitely possible since no banks are involved). Then I'd want to refi the LLC-owned property to get most of my money back. Anyone do this? Easy to refi a seasoned property in a LLC?

I also know that you can only get between 4-10 mortgages. So how do I ramp up to 50, or 100, which is where I plan to be?

Thank you for any SPECIFIC help.

[David Faulkner]

Seems like that might have been a good thing to figure out BEFORE opening up the LLC, but now that you already have it open, my advice would be to close it down, buy under your own name with easy conventional financing, and take out a reasonably sized umbrella insurance policy. BTW, if you stay in your local market, you wouldn't need 50-100 doors to retire, not that you really would be retired managing 50-100 doors anyhow, or managing a out of state property manager and cleaning up their messes on your 50-100 doors. But, to answer your question, 10x4-plexes = 40 units ... portfolio loans from small banks or commercial loans beyond that. Happy investing!