House Hacking- Using a Master Lease w/ Tenants in owner occupied

House Hacking- Using a Master Lease w/ Tenants in owner occupied

Washington, DC · Member since 2016 · 9 posts · 2 votes

Hi All- 

I live in and own a rowhouse in Washington D.C. I have been house hacking for almost two years now and basically live for free in the basement while having three tenants occupy individual leases in the upstairs rooms. The kitchen and common areas are shared. I am in the process of building an Accessory Dwelling Unit in the backyard with a one-car garage and one-bedroom apartment that I will move into and then rent the basement to pay for the new unit. 

As I begin to expand, I am exploring the option of using an LLC to master lease the house out to and have my tenants pay their rent directly to the LLC, instead of me directly, as I currently do. I believe there are a number of advantages to this, including-

1. Increased liability protection for any damages that may be sought from a potential tenant. 

2. Increased tax deductions for things I currently cannot like cell phone, travel, entertainment, etc. 

3. Moving into a more formal business arrangement with the expansion of another unit plus the ability to expand further down the road. 

My question is- what are your thoughts on this in general? 

More specifically, how would I go about doing this? I know how to setup a an LLC but I have never used a master lease for this type of situation. I can't find much on other people exploring this type of arrangement and am wondering if anyone else out there has done something similar for a house hack.

Thanks for any advice/feedback you can give! 

It has been a great learning experience so far and the financial freedom has been tremendous. It's on the beginning, but I am wanting to learn how to grow and believe this is a next step. I'm happy to answer any questions from my experience doing this that others may have. 

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  • Rental Property Investor · Buffalo, NY · Member since 2017 · 257 posts · 130 votes
    8y

    These are good things to consider. 

    An LLC itself does not have any tax advantages. You can elect to be taxed as a sole proprietor, or form an S-Corp or C-Corp with an LLC but the latter two would not make sense with rentals. So you are currently taxed as a sole-proprietor and you would stay that way even after forming an LLC.

    You can deduct cell phone as it is used for rental business. Travel and entertainment are less likely to have much to do with rental expense. 

    The reason to form an LLC is to protect your personal assets from litigation from your business. So it begs the question, do you have any assets to protect? If you have a mortgage on your property, then there isn't much to be had there. Setting up an LLC at this time may just be a waste of money/time and will require you to completely separate the LLCs accounting from your personal accounting. No more using your personal credit cards for business expenses. It will also be more difficult to obtain financing from banks for an LLC.

    I have 10 units total and do not feel the need for the protection of LLC at this point. Every property I own has mortgages and I do not have other significant assets for someone to take. I have three vehicles, the newest one being a 2012. Once I do have something to take, then I will decide how to protect it, either through an LLC or umbrella policy.

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