Attorney, realtor, lender and cpa all in one place?

[Laura Dagenais]

I reside in Massachusetts and my boyfriend and I want to purchase a vacation home in a specific resort in Davenport FL. Our primary goal is to have a long term investment that pays for itself (or at least offsets the cost) over time through short term rentals like air bnb. We want to protect our individual personal assets and maintain anonymity as much as possible. We are looking for a firm that is familiar with multi state partnerships that can give us legal advice or set up our business correctly from the start.

Is there such a thing as an all inclusive agency that handles all of the legal and accounting and licensing for you in one place or do we need to hire a lawyer, accountant, realtor and broker individually? Should they all be located in Florida or Massachusetts?

Any guidance is appreciated!

[David M.]

@Laura Dagenais That's kinda lot to put into one company.  Licensure, insurance, business lines, etc would be all mashed together.  Maybe some sort of "white glove" organization exists, but doubtful.

Also, it would be better to split it up for sourcing issues, just like hiring trades instead of general contractors.

For example, it took me two years to find my agent.  My "problem" is that I've outlived multiple good attorneys --- unfortunately, those are the good ones.  I've always done my own bookkeeping.  over 20yrs prepared and file my own returns, but financials became more complicated so I had to turn to an accounting firm.  I went with a large 400+ person firm that can cover anything.

Either way, the chances of one or two people having all those licenses/capabilities is pretty rare.  So, you'll be working with separate people anyway.  Lets face it, in most cases one doesn't care about the other.  No one should "care" what the realtor is doing --- it doesn't affect your accounting or legal matter.  Sure, what you do will affect those latter two, but nothing about the realtor.

Perhaps with in your setup the lawyer and accountant may need to confer, but the accountant will prepare the return according to whatever income/expenses you provide and whatever legal structure your lawyer puts together for you. Also, I've of the camp that LLC's and expecially anonymity in many situations is overrated...

And, if you are investing in FL, then you'll need realtor licensed in FL.  Your attorney, for your legal structure, will need to be FL and perhaps MA (so two attorneys anyway).  Since FL doesn't have an income tax, go with a MA accountant.  Although, that doesn't always really matter too much, for example, my accountant can all 50 states.

Hope that helps some.  Happy to chat.  Good luck.