Properties in multiple states as a one person show

[Mitchell Mabee]

I'm in the military and I already own one property under an LLC in Missouri. I've been lucky enough to get orders to Florida where I now also own a house. I'm planning on renting it out in the future, but I have a few questions on owning properties in multiple states:

- First and foremost, is there anyone I should be asking these questions to, like a lawyer or CPA?
- Should I keep my Missouri LLC and use it in Florida as a foreign entity? Should I create an umbrella LLC? How does that work?
- What are recommendations on using one bank account/accounting software vs individual accounts?  Reminder that I'm one person trying to do it all, so ease of use is important
- Anything else that I might need to know to run multiple properties in multiple states?

Thanks for any and all help!

[Doug Spence]

@Mitchell Mabee I'm also active duty military and I own several rental properties in different states. 

-Yes you should hire a CPA to handle your taxes now that you own multiple properties in different states.

-You don't need to own properties within an LLC. I own some properties in my personal name and some in an LLC, but you can have adequate liability protection via the property's landlord policy and an umbrella insurance policy. Its much more cost effective than creating and maintaining an LLC for every property. Plus, you'll get better financing by getting mortgages in your personal name.

-I use navy fed for the banking for my personally owned properties (I have one checking account for three Milwaukee properties, and one for my Pensacola property) and for the properties owned by the LLC, I have a business checking account via Chase to handle those. I don't recommend chase though, I would go with AMEX for business checking if you go the LLC route. I use AMEX for a different business account and it was way easier to set up.

Good luck and let me know if I can help with anything.