How to classify my business?

[Shannon Wilson]

Hello, I am new to the realm of rental arbitrage but I have been learning a lot as of late. I know that some people elect to have an LLC when starting rental arbitrage and post their properties on AirBnB, which I also want to do.

I wanted to know when filing an LLC what do you file it as? Do you file as a property management company? Rental company? Also do you need to make your own contracts when contacting the landlord of an apartment you desire to acquire? How do you make a deal with the landlord/property manager of an apartment complex?

[Frank Chin]

@Shannon Wilson

What I did was put it down as a "Business Service" company. With such nomenclature, it could be and do anything. I don't need a license to do business services.

Also, you can add a DBA to your company if the name does not exactly spells out what it does. I formed an S Corp to do Software Consulting that I no longer do, but my wife starting selling nutritional supplements, so we formed a DBA that goes under the S Corp so people wouldn't be confused with a software company doing nutritional supplements. And I don't have to re-incorporate.

So you can form a company called "Shannon LLC" doing business services, and a DBA called "Shannon's AirBnB" for advertising to customers. Then when you decide to do, say, nutritional supplements like my wife, just add in another DBA, "Shannon's Nutrition". Each DBA will have it's own bank account. You just file another application with the state for the DBA, which you'll have to submit to the bank.

My CPA asked me how I came up with  "business services". I said what I do for my rental business is bring checks to the bank, do bookkeeping, take phone calls from tenants, pay bills, call repairman, etc. Can you give me a better name than business services other than property management which I'll need a license.