Real Estate Agent · San Jose, CA · Member since 2013 · 43 posts · 39 votes
I know a few people who have shown interest in funding some of my future deals and I was wondering what was the best way to approach this from a legal/tax standpoint. Ultimately, I know I'll need to talk to an attorney, but I wanted to get a general idea first and do more reading on it.
I have two scenarios I want to address:
1) They fund 100% of the deal as a loan.
and
2) They want me to manage their money and invest it for them in real estate.
What vehicle would I use to have them transfer me the money, without incurring taxes? I don't want the IRS to think that I am getting "free" money as gifts, laundering money, or anything of that sort.
Am I allowed to just have them wire me the money to a separate bank account (intended exclusively for funding deals like this) or is it better to create an LLC with a new bank account? If an LLC was required, would I be allowed to run both scenarios under the same LLC?
Is there any particular documentation required for either scenario?
I may be completely off base, so let me know if there are other ways to run this. Thanks!
You should go with option 1. They will wore money to the closing attorney and get a 1st position lean on the property.
Your closing attorney will know how this should be done. You dont have to have an LLC for option 1. You will never touch the money, it will all be handled through the closing attorney.
You should go with option 1. They will wore money to the closing attorney and get a 1st position lean on the property.
Your closing attorney will know how this should be done. You dont have to have an LLC for option 1. You will never touch the money, it will all be handled through the closing attorney.
@Curt Davis Thanks for the response. I guess I wasn't clear enough.
Let's say I have a friend who wants to loan me 100k, and I will eventually use that money for real estate. Is there anything I need to do to keep that money "clean" and free of taxes. I might use that money to purchase several properties, do some refinancing with banks, etc... It wouldn't be necessarily all tied up in one deal.
Same thing if my friend wants to send me 100k for me to manage it, anything I need to do prior to accepting the money?
For option one you should look up loan originators in your local area. They can handle the process of making the loan-this would be required of your friend lending the money if he issues 5 or more mortgages in a rolling 12 month period. So you could create a new mortgage for each new deal or you could open what would amount to a HELOC-though I don't know how you would go about that with funds from a private lender (your friend).
For option two you might consider creating a LLC where your friend maintains ownership and you just act as an officer in the company-that way all tax consequences remain with the LLC and are ultimately passed through to the owner.
Definitely get with an attorney/accountant to discuss these options.
I'm not sure why you'd want to manage their money. There are going to be all kinds of possible red flags that pop up that way.
If you're going to invest in real estate with it, then just have him keep his own money in his own account and then lend the money to you on on the deals. If he just wants to buy and own the properties, then have him buy with cash. Thats even easier. The homes could be in his name.
Just not sure how you're going to get any money for your effort. I guess thats the other question that maybe you need to answer.
Is he just looking to lend you the money and get paid interest on the loan as a way to get a better return on his money? Is he looking for interest plus a share of the profits on a flip? Or a share of the profits on rentals? Or all the profits?
What kind of agreement do you two have in terms of how it is you're going to benefit?
@Steve Vu - Something I didnt see mentioned is do you want to share with your investor both the upside and the downside, or do you want to take on all the risk? If you want to take on all the risk with all the up and downside, I would get a loan from the private investor at a fixed interest rate. This can be a loan backed by collateral or a unsecured loan to you or your business. If the investor wants to share with the upside, you can set up an LLC and have joint ownership of the company to invest the funds with. If you start to pool investor funds, then it will become a syndication and you'll need the right lawyer to set that up.
Showing interest and investing are two different things. Any time you have more than one person in you are very likely to have a securities arrangement; especially if they're being passive.
As some others have touched upon above how to structure things will depend largely on what the investors want. Are they wanting to manage risk and be in a safer place in the capital stack or are they seeking more yield? Are they wanting to structure things to minimize taxes or is liquidity a bigger motivator? Are they comfortable investing for a period of time or are they looking for shorter-term investments? Do they want to select individual deals or are they investing the money and given you full discretion over projects to pursue? Are the investors all in the same state? Is that the same state you and the projects reside in or are there multiple states involved?
I could go on and on and on. Yeah....see an attorney. You are likely going to need to see a securities attorney, but starting with a local attorney familiar with real estate partnerships may be a good start.
@Steve Vu - We can talk more about it during the meetup next week if you can make it out. Just be careful when you say "manage money" for others and if the other investor is passive. There are SEC laws out there that can get you into trouble with that verbiage if that is what you are marketing to others.