Owning Properties Through an LLC and in My Own Name

[Christopher Helwig]

I own 4 rental properties. Two are in my name and two are owned through an LLC. The mortgage holder for the two I own in my name will not let me change ownership to the LLC. In order to keep the liability protection on the homes owned through the LLC, I need to maintain "separate identities" between myself and my LLC. for simplicity sake, I would like to deposit all the rents into the LLC bank account. Would this cause a court to see myself and the LLC as essentially the same entity? To pay the mortgages for the homes I own in my name would I have to transfer the money to my personal account and then pay it form there? Do other people have properties in their own name and in an LLC? How do you handle it? Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

[David M.]

@Christopher Helwig

Co-mingling funds and using the LLC as an alter-ego are surefire ways to pierce your corporate veil and lose your limited liabiilty protection, the main purpose of having a LLC.

If you want to "consolidate" your activities, I would transfer Title from yourself to your LLC (same or new one which is whole different discussion) and simultaneosly refi into a commercial loan since legal entities are not eligible for residential lending (hopefully you aren't "frankensteining" it).

Hope that helps.  Good luck.