LLC and Bank account

[Krishnan T.]

I recently opened a LLC in Michigan for a investment property that I bought in Michigan. I wanted to open a small business bank account for the Michigan property rental checks to go into the account . I went to a few the local banks to get it opened and found out to my dismay that the bank wanted my LLC to be registered on Sunbiz (Florida LLC registry),they would not open an account for the Michigan LLC even though I was able to provide a certificate of good standing from Michigan. Registering a LLC in Florida after it is already registered in Michigan has multiple issues which are: 1> Pay the fees for registration and lawyer in Florida also 2>What if during registration process the name is already taken in Florida ?

I called up my local Wells Fargo and they were willing to open the account, problem is that the terms of the account were more favorable with the smaller banks. So were the smaller banks banker misinformed ?

[Jeff Weaver]

Just out of curiosity do you already have a different LLC bank account in Florida? Just have your MI property manager send the payment to that account. I have several LLC's in Michigan. Only one has a bank account each one has a management agreement between the LLC that the house is held in, And the management LLC were the rent is funneled.

I also hire a outside PM, so the PM collects the rents from the individual LLC tenants ( SFH) then sends them to my 1 LLC bank account. This could be in any bank in any state.

I would not do this if it was a larger MF but for my 36 rentals units it works well. 

As a side note the account I use is at Bank of America. They will give you deposit only ATM cards ( as many as you want ) for free. I give these to my tenants and they go to the ATM 24-7 to deposit there rent ( cash check or money order). And they can print a receipt ( receipt does not show the account balance and they have no access to any other ATM feature) 

Each card has its own # on it so I just keep track of the numbers with each tenant. It's easy. You can also set up alerts when a deposit is made.