Who do your tenants write their checks to for rent?

[Geo Tan]

Hello BiggerPockets family,

I am currently in escrow for my first multiunit so I am finally able to join in on this side of the forums.

I was just curious to how most of you fellow investors would setup the basics in being a landlord of a multiunit. I will have the property under my name and will not be placing it in an LLC since the fees seem too high for a young investor such as myself and I honestly do not have much to my name. The issue is that I would like to manage this property myself and would like to be known as the property manager and not a landlord.

Since the property is under my name, I was wondering if there was a way to have them write out their checks to a company name rather than my name for obvious reasons stated above. I've tried looking up this info on biggerpockets but there doesn't seem to be anything with heavy detail on this topic. Would I have to create a corporation or LLC as a management company to do this? Or are most landlords that manage the property themselves just having them write their names on the rent checks? And as a hopefully new landlord soon, any other tips or ideas in regards to managing a multiunit would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance and if I was confusing in anyway please feel free to ask me any questions and I'll try to give more detail!

[Jeff B.]

Create a DBA, open the checking and savings accounts in that name, sign the lease in the name of the DBA/owner operator and then have the checks written to that name.