Own home in AZ. Bought new primary residence in MI .Moving to Michigan. LLC help pls

[Susan Authement]

Question : I have 2 homes ,.I have my orginal primary res. here in AZ ( im going to rent it out) and the new 2nd home i just purchased from a HELOC (that im going to make /change to my primary residence). I don't know if i should put both homes in their own seperate LLC's located in their own states (AZ and MI) or if i should put them both into a single LLC. The AZ home will be a full time rental and michigan my private home. If i do put them both into a single one, I have no idea which state to choose. I also don't know if i need to decide now before i move.

On a related subject : (A little bit of good news in a crap world) :  I have a giant, a truly huge, thank you to you guys :  Thank you so much to the many people who took the time to give good free advice to a : A Veteran, a stay at home mom (who had not worked or had income in 27 yrs)   I really do thank any of you who gave me advice 4 yrs ago. I took your advice and blended it with what i wanted and thought.  It was a raging success. 

Here is what happened after i spoke to everyone here : It took me 4 yrs but last year finally i closed on my primary residence here in AZ.. I did a Rent to own offer spread out over 4 yrs 10k down payment in the form of 200 dollar monthly installments in that 4 yr period, paid alongside the monthly rent. The day i closed i noticed i had a crazy amount of built up equity in my new home. (I got it in the contract for 92K, 4 yrs rent to own later when closed i was suprised when i checked to find the value at 130K.) Ive lived in the home for the mandatory 1 year to claim primary res status. I checked the value last month online (AVM) and it was 170K. Appraisal for the Heloc came in over that at 220K last month. I decided to use the equity and I got a HELOC last month that I used to buy my new primary residence in MI where i grew up and my elderly parents still live. I have it budgeted for early payoff in 5 yrs or sooner. I will be leaving AZ end of next month. The AZ house will strictly be a rental property. I will use it to get another HELOC , pay it off in 5 yrs, then rinse repeat eventually part of funding my retirement income since i am 57 yrs old and had lost most financial security when my spouse divoced me. I do plan on getting one more home in MI to be a rental (1 primary and 1 rental in MI LLC), I will use them the same way i did this AZ home. Starting next month when my renter moves in i will have only utilities and taxes as overhead at my new home in michigan. I was able to set and get the rent high enough at the AZ home to cover both the orginal mortgage and the equity loan. Since i paid cash for new michigan home i can use it to finance the future MI rental home and pay it right back off again in 2-5 yrs if i need to, Im going to try to not do that.

I had come up with this plan all on my own but had no real idea of how to execute it and i had ZERO practical experience. I think I had a 50 50 chance of failure so i looked for help and advice. I found this website and the information i needed to do it safely. Thank you guys. Looking forward to your LLC suggestions and also any info on what a LLC can do for someone who is doing what i just described above . Thank you again, S. A

[Jaime Duron]

Hi Susan Authement! Great question here, my first initial response is. What is your purpose for having a LLC under the two different properties. Are you looking for a certain amount of protection just in case something happens or piece of mind? Not to deter you from getting an LLC, but I would look into getting a Umbrella Policy for your AZ home and get an amount of coverage that you feel is necessary. This will help with anyone going for your personal assets. I would definitely talk to your CPA and RE attorney to get more clarification and to see if it makes sense for you. I would hate for your to spend all that money on getting a LLC and its not what you had thought the protection would do. Hope it helps!