Beginners Story plus Beginner Question!

[Joseph Morell]

Hey there everybody! Just joined this website as a resource for my newfound real estate investing business, and what a great resource it is!

So a bit about me....In 2011 I bought a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom condo in suburban DC. After initial down payment, 1 refinance, and some upgrades to the place I'm looking at about a 16% return on investment.

My thought is, if I managed to make this work by accident, imagine what I can do if I actually seek out rental properties!

I wanted to post my next proposed steps, and see what this community has to say about it!

1. Get an umbrealla insurance policy for this condo.

2. Form trust/LLC and transfer said property into it. I've been doing a ton of reading on BP and some say its no big deal, some say good luck you will have the loan accelerated! Any thoughts/experiences on this?

3. I'd like to start looking at more investment properties in OH/TN/TX/GA, it seems like these places are havens for real estate investors.

Now a couple questions about these goals.

1. Is there a general concensus on what type of financing to use? My inital thought was that the LLC buys the houses (using the profit from my current condo as proof that it's making money), but that seems much harder than meets the eye. I knew about 25-30% down payments, but didn't realize I'd have to buy them with commercial loans. I also want to keep my personal debt-to-income ratio as normal as possible.

2. If it is impossible to transfer the current condo to the LLC, can I lease the condo to the LLC, and in turn have the LLC lease it to the tenants? Would this provide the layer of protection I'm looking for as well as prove the LLC makes money?

I think this is it for now......thanks in advance for the help! I'm looking forward to getting this business off the ground!