LLC or Umbrella Policy

[Kin Leung]

Hi All, My name is Kin and I'm a newbie here. Heard many great things about this forum and wanted to be part of this community. I have a few questions about a property we've purchased recently in North Carolina. We live in California and the house is under both my wife and my names currently. We also have 3 other properties in CA under our names and a $2M umbrella policy. My questions are: 1: should we set up an LLC? Or should I just raise the umbrella policy to a higher amount? 2: for an LLC, what would be the start up cost and annual cost as I know I'd also need a registered agent and pay an annual report fee? 3: since I already set up an account under my own name to handle all the transactions for the NC rental property, is it now pointless to set up the LLC? Look forward to learning from the collective wisdom.

[Chris Puckett]

@Kin Leung Here are my thoughts, I'm an NC REALTOR®, investor and property manager, 

1. LLC is strictly for protection. Your risk tolerance is really the key to whether you do an LLC or not. LLC will limit you when it comes to financing.

2. Start up cost for an LLC is relatively low, couple hundred dollars. Annual fee is around $200.

3. if you set up an LLC you and want to handle the properties you currently own you will just have to get a lawyer to change over the title, typically using a quit claim deed. Pretty easy process but you will incur some attorney fees.