Newbie investing group....where do we start?

[Nate Kimball]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forums, but have been reading the posts and articles here for some time now. I seek your wisdom!

A small group of friends and myself all work jobs with low hours and good income. We have a mutual interest in starting a purchasing group. I suppose before we even discuss our first purchase, we need to iron out the legalities of purchasing homes as a group. So I have a few questions as to where to start with this...

1. Should we Incorporate (i.e. S-Corp.) or LLC? What would be the pros/cons of one or the other?

2. How does purchasing a home work as an LLC or Corp.? Is one individual responsible for the proof of funds and then title is taken in the business name or does it work differently?

3. Are there grants available through HUD or other government agencies to get a group such as ours on its feet?

4. Once we have laid down the business foundation, I discussed with my buddies the idea of making our first purchase a cheap SFR ($40-60k) in the University area and offering as a rental to students. Any yeas/nays with this idea?

I know that is a lot to process, but I would appreciate any help you can provide for us on this subject. We're all new at this, and we just want to make sure it is done correctly. If any of these topics have been covered in exhaustive detail, I apologize, but please feel free to post a link to save time/aggravation.

Thank you all and I look forward to getting to know you all better as our group goes through this initial process!