All Forum Posts by: Carlo D.

@Carlo D. I’m in a rather rural area so my rates may be a little lower than average.

I have just started with a bookkeeper to do my 2023 book and going forward. She is $50/hour and has spent a considerable amount of time getting my books straightened out to utilize Quickbooks.

I have sent two $500 payments and everything is just about set up.

I believe with her discounted rate I will be charged $26/month for my Quickbooks account.

I currently have 7 buildings with 25 units for reference.

We are only dealing with 8 checking accounts related to my buildings. Each building has its own checking account. (I sold one building but the bookkeeping still has to be done on it for 2023).

The whole thing to the WY LLC as it relates to everyday RE investors is that it keeps your name off the corporate docs filed with the Secretary Of State and in public view. For the most part, if your running real estate somewhate properly, the risk isnt your property causing you to get sued....Think of it as you are hopefully protecting you property from yourself in the event a motorist sues you over a car accident, you dont want them getting access to your real estate assets.
I researched all these different corporate structures very in depth when i was starting and now that I look back, I wasted a lot of time trying to "protect" myself from the 1 in a million things instead of just focusing on the main goal of acquiring and operating RE assets. Do not pay 10k to a lawyer to set this up, if you want, you can set up the WY LLC for free on bizee.com but would also need a "Registered Agent" aka RA which is $25-$35 annually with 3rd party companies after the 1st yr free with Bizee. Do NOT pay $100 or whatever for an EIN # either, get it for free directly on IRS website with the same amount of energy. 

 Hello Carlo,

I've used Quickbooks virtual bookkeeping services to manage 4 bank accounts for 2 companies.

My stuff is pretty straight forward, not too complicated.

I pay $300/month + an additional $65 for using the software.

All the best!

Abel

Flat rate of $800/month to a bookkeeper that specializes in real estate. I have 19 long term rentals and do some wholesaling/flips as well.

If you do go with an LLC, make sure an attorney provides it specific to you (not downloaded from the internet), that teh attorney will defend it in court, that you jave an operatiing agreement and that you follow said operating agreement. Umbrellla insurance beats an LLC in many cases.

Our properties are in LLCs, held by our Trust. That's all. Umbrella insurance covers the rest of the risk.

@Carlo D.

Easy way to look at it

1. If your financing in your own name then title property in your name

2. If loan is in LLC then get a LLC and I would not go Wyoming I would do it in your state you are in.

Most lawyers are extremely risk averse.  Lawyers are also motivated by making money and I've seen some investors set up ridiculously complex structures.  (BTW, just because they are complex, does not make the structures fraudulent or illegal.)

In many ways, this comes down to a business decision.  In your line of investing, what is the likelihood you will get sued?  If you get sued what is the likelihood they will win and what are the possible damages? (For SF rentals, the odds are surprisingly low if you are managing your business properly.) Having a complex structure adds annual costs, but it might make more sense to enhance your insurance liability coverage instead.  Are you going to hire someone to make sure the corporate formalities are upheld?  If you don't, what are the odds you do it improperly and therefore lose any protection you thought they had.  What are the added benefits of the trust and is it worth the cost?

Personally, for SF rentals, I boosted each property's liability coverage to $500K and then had a $2M umbrella policy. For our commercial properties, we have one LLC that does nothing but own the property and another LLC that does nothing but manage the property.

True anonymity is very difficult to pull off.  If you are getting a loan, who is signing for it?  There will probably be a paper trail that is public record that someone can follow.