All Forum Posts by: Joe Jackson

@Larry Fried: I'm on a mobile device and that doesn't happen when typing it in.. :/

After reading more comments here, I'm looking into possibly putting some properties into a mortgage, that I know have appreciated, and wait for more opportunities. 

I Googled crowd funding real estate for fun, and fundrise.com came up first.. which has been apparently mentioned by tech crunch and wired. Anyone have experience with them? 13% sounds too good to be true,  but I assume there are other risks I haven't considered yet. Kinda feel most comfortable in the market I know best and living off 6-7%. :)

Has anyone pulled equity lines? I guess my mom was saying bank of America has one at 2.2% with no setup costs and it's fixed? 

@Chris T: What does big MF mean? 

How do people protect their assets when they mortgage say, 100 units, and if things go south? I posted a separate question about protecting myself, and it's clear the way to go is with an umbrella policy. 

I'd assume an LLC would be better for this situation, but it'd cut away my bottom line even more, bringing by risk for reward into question.

Definitely something for me to think on. I appreciate the quick response.

@Larry Fried: Read the article, I'm going to check out crowd funding. Haven't ever looked into it.  :) 

It's reassuring to know I have things setup properly. 

My other question would be: should I put the properties under my Trust or not,  or does it not matter? They're under our trust because they're long term rentals, with no plans of selling.. and if something were to happen to me, they wouldn't go into probate.

@Jason Bott: that's actually exactly what our umbrella policy is for. :)

@Sam samir: Thanks for the info. My attorney said that a series LLC is ignored in the state of California and treated as separate and that we'd have to pay the $800 yearly fee, per each property annually, and additional tax prep costs. I guess CA isn't friendly to LLC'so.

Given everyone's feedback though it seems like LLC's are last resort and don't really offer protection as is, plus given how CA treats them..

I have about 5 rental units in Chicago,  that I own outright, along with a lot of personal equity. 

I'm planning on getting more rental properties but want to make sure my liabilities are in check and that I protect myself. 

I've looked at incorporating to reduce my liability, but we live in California and our units are in Chicago. I've been told that each unit needs to be it's own LLC, and you can't put all units under one LLC/entity? What we've done, which doesn't seem smart, is put everything under our Trust.. and then we have a big umbrella policy. (Doing individual LLC's for each unit is costly because of setup fees, filing fees, and tax accountant fees)

What do you guys suggest? 

I read through a few posts here, trying to see what returns people are shooting for.. and most don't fit my situation. 

I made my money in tech, and want to be able to not have to worry about money for the rest of my life. 

My mom's a realtor and my dad and father in law are extremely handy... which made my decision to invest in real estate easy. 

We've done a few flips and made big returns, but what I've liked more recently are picking up foreclosures for about $200k, fixing it up with about $5-10k, and renting from $2000 to $2200 a month.. I've had zero problems with our long term renters on our now, 5 units.

I'm not familiar with all the investment terms used here, but I'm making about 6-7% free and clear. (This includes  expenses like hoa's, property taxes, insurance.. and even things like income tax on profits and depreciation tax credits)

So for example,  the ~$205k condo returns $14,350 after income tax and all expenses (ie where I call it 7%)

I still have lots of cash on hand, and am curious what you guys think about these numbers and if there's anything else I should consider. 

I want to keep things very low maintenance and pretty low risk.