Buying with Personal Loan and Transferring to LLC

[Stephen S.]

First time investing in property and have a few questions - Buying townhouse in North Carolina with intention to rent out. My bank does not give mortgage loans through LLC, so rather than getting another bank to do commercial loan I wanted to get it as a personal mortgage loan and then transfer the deed after purchase to LLC. The bank in so many words said that as long as mortgage is paid on time they are not likely to raise any issues. Is this an optimal route?

- I do plan on investing in more than one down the road

- Is it worth doing the LLC part yet rather than adding an additional umbrella policy and leaving it as personal mortgage?

- If I do switch the deed to LLC, are there fees and do I need to refinance?

Thank you!

[Soh Tanaka]

It's better to think an umbrella policy and LLC as different tools. It's not that having one means you don't need the other one. If you have a lot of assets and/or equity, then considering LLC becomes a good idea. If you don't have much assets and/or equity, then you may not need an LLC yet. I'm not an attorney by the way.