Going into the Property Management Business

[David Flores]

Hi Everyone,

I am an experienced real estate investor with 23 units between solely owned and partnership deals. I have a lot of experience and actually manage all these 23 units. I know multiple handymen, multiple contractors, appliance warehouses, have never missed a rent payment, etc. I have a good system. 

That being said I have the network to get into the property management field. The problem is, I am not a broker and I am not an agent. I know a lawyer who I am very friendly with that wants to sign as the broker for the business. He would get 5-10% of profit for doing so. We still have to hash that out. 

We are at preliminary phases of opening the business but my real partner and I (not the lawyer) are curious about some concerns. So Mr. Lawyer already owns and operates a real estate firm (lets call it Mr Laywers Realty). They sell homes and get rent units, typical realty. They do not have a property management side. What Mr. Lawyer wants to do is make another branch called Mr. Lawyer Property Management and have it as a branch under his company he already owns. 

Now, that is not the route me and my real partner wanted to go. We wanted a separate business stating he is only a minority partner and has no real control of the operations. He would really just be a figure head and partner. Are we able to do something like this?

Besides my question in the last sentence my other questions are as follows: Can a broker at anytime pull out of a company and take his broker license with him, thus giving us a non-legal company in the future? Can we make it so the broker does not have any voting power? And can we make it so we are the owners of the company and not Mr. Lawyer (I am assuming this answer is yes as we can set up a partnership operating agreement)?

Really need legal experts here and not opinions. Thanks BP World!!