SERIES LLC FOR FLIPS?

[Tim Silvers]

I am familiar with the series LLC, having used it before for rental property, but what about for quick flips in which the hold time may be only 30 days or less & you're doing volume? Yes, you pay a one-time formation fee and only one annual filing fee for the master LLC, but for liability/asset protection, you STILL have to do separate operating agreements, separate dba's (that means licensing fees), separate bank accounts, separate accounting, and separate EINs for each series! I addition to these ongoing administrative fees, this also means ongoing attorney and accounting fees for each series! Most of those working flips are working pretty thin as it is.
Other than the initial setup and annual filing fees - I don't see where the series LLC would make sense for short term flips. The question is - is it really worth it to incur all these ancillary costs and paperwork for a flip?

Why not just use 1 LLC that never holds any assets - (in flipping you're in and out in a short time and all income passes through to the members anyway ) - to do all your flip deals. I cannot see it making sense to go through all this hassle to set up individual series LLC for each flip deal. The costs for each will KILL your spread!

What entity(s) do you flippers out there use?

[Bryan Hancock]

I think a single LLC taxed as an s-corp is the way to go. This allows for the salary/dividend split.

If you have several projects running at once it may make sense to have them in separate entities or separate series within a LLC. This really depends on your situation, what you have to protect, your state fees, accounting, etc. I doubt anyone will be able to give you great advice via a message board without knowing more about your overall situation.