Title / Deed in LLC or Personal name

[Timothy Carlin]

Sorry if this has already been covered.

I have a 4 unit property that I own with an investor that is currently in an LLC. We would like to refinance now after doing some improvements the last couple years and getting rent up to market rate. In talking to a couple different banks from what I can gather. Some will give us a loan to the LLC at a rate of apx. 4.4% (last time i checked a couple months ago) where as a couple will, if we switch to having the property in our two names, give us a loan at apx. 3.2% (again last time I checked) my understanding is this has to do with how they sell the loans in the world of frannie / freddie but i'm not exactly sure.

So this brings up a regular topic of to put property in LLC or not. In this case the partner in the deal (because of his higher net worth) wants the added layer of the LLC. I have heard from a couple people that one work around is to do the loan in our names and then after everything is filed with the county go down and transfer the deed back into the name of the LLC and basically just do not tell the bank you did this. While this sounds easy enough it also sounds a little dreamy and the people who told me this had not actually done this move and it was more story than action. Does anyone have any experience or information on this work around idea or other ideas that might work in this scenario. We would obviously love a fixed 30 yr loan at a lower rate more than a 5 yr adjustable on 25 yr amortization with a higher interest rate. PS this is in Ohio if it matters state to state. Thanks for any help / information this community has been an awesome resource!

-tc