To keep as personal residence or place in my LLC?

[Todd Alvarez]

Hello all! New to the site and this is my first post/question. I have a full time job and plan to keep that for the next 5-7 years to generate my investment capital. Got divorced a few years ago and ended up buying a condo. I realize now that was/is a bad financial decision, considering my goals. The HOA will not let me rent it, so it just makes no sense to own it; therefore, I am purchasing my first multi-family with a 0 down VA loan, possible 5/1 or 3/1 ARM. This is an effort to free up even more capital and possibly live mortgage free while still maintaining the tax advantages of home ownership. Meanwhile, I've set up my REI LLC company but it will remain pretty much inactive this year while I drum up startup capital. I plan to hit the ground running early next year after receiving my year end bonus and having whatever I'm able to save up this year. So back to the multi. Technically, with the VA loan, I need to "occupy" the property, and I plan to, at least for a couple years. This will be a cheap property, perhaps only a duplex and I actually plan to pay it off fairly quickly so that I'm not paranoid about the whole VA "residency" requirement. So say I pay it off in 3 years? Should I keep it under my personal name and continue to benefit from the tax advantages or should I dump it into the LLC? Would I get the same benefits if it's in the LLC? Ideas/suggestion? I look forward to working with you all and am excited to be a part of this community.