All Forum Posts by: Jessica Zolotorofe

Hi @Todd Rizzardi. Really good question. If it's just you, then yes, you should have LLCs for each property, and there are some things to be really careful of if you're doing the project alone, even if you have an LLC, you are not always protected from personal liability. If you have numerous partners you plan on working with on numerous projects, I usually suggest my clients form one LLC that has a single operating agreement setting forth all of the important things like distribution of profits, who manages day to day, who can bind the company in contracts, lien the property, negotiate financing, sell the property, etc. You don't want to have to redo those terms every time you start a new project. So that would be your general LLC. The general LLC would then be the sole member of the site specific LLCs, so for example, if your general LLC was NJ Investors, LLC and you bought a project at 123 Main Street, you could form 123 Main, LLC. The sole member would be NJ Investors, LLC, so that if there was any liability issues, the only asset the particular project would have was that property, but taxes would flow through a single return, and the corporate structure is so much easier than starting over every time.

Hi @Chris Ragazzo.  

If you just want to form a simple single purpose LLC to protect yourself in the ownership of a particular property from liability, then you can just go on the NJ Department of Treasury website and form. If you plan on having a bank account, you'll need a simple operating agreement. ALWAYS have a separate bank account so you can show that it is not just a shell entity, but you really put and pull money from your personal account. If you need anything any more complex, like the agreement with your 'partners' as to who contributes additional capital if it is needed on a project, or how profits are distributed and who manages the day to day, pays bills, etc. and then what one partner can do without the others, i.e. put liens on the property, bind the LLC in contracts, sell the property, etc., then you really should hire a lawyer to help document those things clearly.

Hi Ani! I see it has been over a year since you posted. Curious as to what you have been up to and whether you have invested further in JC. I live in JC and I am very familiar with the market, so I would love to hear about your journey since this post!