Business Structure for Lonnie Deals

[Jon Luciano]

I have started to look for my first Lonnie Deal and had a question about setting up the business. In Lonnies book, Deals on Wheels, it seems that Lonnie does all of his deals as an individual. Is this the best way to do them or is an LLC, Corp or S-Corp better? I live in Colorado in case that helps.

Also in the book, he always refers to "checks" coming in the mail. To prevent bounced checks, fraud etc is it better to require money orders instead?

I tried looking for the answer to these and came up empty, I'm sorry if this is a duplicate thread.

Thanks for your time

[Rachel H.]

Hi Jon,

This is a very good question. This is just my experience, I'm not an attorney and/or giving legal advice here. (If you are seeking legal advice and feel more comfortable discussing with an attorney, I recommend that you do).

When first starting out (and once you've got your goals in mind), I think the most important thing for me was to just go out and start learning the market. Once I learned the market, then I was able to put together the first deal. I find a lot of people starting out get too bogged down with the details (i.e. tax issues, business structure, etc). Quite honestly, it's really not that big of a deal in my opinion.

When I first started out doing Lonnie deals, the advice given to me from many experienced Lonnie dealers was just to go out and do the first deal. After the first one and/or a couple of them, then if it's something I want to continue then go out and go into the details of structuring the business.

Honestly, I've known some investors do a Lonnie deal or two only two find out it's not for them. Some people just don't really get into it - it's not their thing. I guess it's one of those things people try out and if they like it, continue. I know it was for me.

Again, this is just my take. There may be some here that may disagree. Though, just my thoughts.

Hope that helps!