@Natalie Kolodij, the statement "never keep rentals in a s corp" is misleading. After talking with my CPA and attorney tonight, an s corp makes sense for me. I am a high income earner who would be taxed at 24-32% on my day job w2 income. My main focus is to reduce my tax burden. I also actively participate in my rentals, as justified by easily clocking 500 hours of active property management and scouting, also justified by having a RE license. An s corp gives me a corporate vail that an LLC could never provide, as LLCs are limited up to insurance maximums. LLCs do not protect personal assets nearly as well as s corps. Further, the risks of s corps that I face - 1) step up basis 2) triggering a transaction upon refinance 3) passive income from LTRs - are all avoidable. I have plenty of basis in my real estate and I am not borrowing beyond my basis. I can use an LLC designated as s corp for the refinance. My real estate income can easily qualify as active.
The point is that too many real estate blogs and forums say "never put real estate in an s corp", but in reality there are plenty of reasons why you would want to use an s corp for optimal asset protection and tax strategy. Further, it is important to note that s corp is just a federal tax designation. The state entity structure can be an LLC with federal tax status as s corp.
