All Forum Posts by: Mike S.

With only one or two properties it is maybe overkill, and you will get probably a lot of opposite opinions in this forum, but for long term buy and hold, I am in the camp of having one LLC per property (of enough value) and one C corp as a management company. The management company is collecting the rent under an operating agreement with your LLCs. Your C corp is used for most tax write off of expenses, medical benefit and other fringe benefits. You can also consider using it to fund a qualified retirement plan. The gain are passed through your LLCs.

If you do some flips, you can add an S corp entity for them.

Also by separating the operation from the ownership you divide the liability risks.

South Carolina LLC statutes are not very asset protection friendly, and it may be better to use a SC Limited Partership instead, however that would create limitations on the passive loss. I would suggest looking at having these SC LLCs owned by a holding WY LLC. It would give you a layer of anonymity and add outside liability protection.

For putting assets in the LLC you just do an assignment that will be your contributions to the LLC. You are not selling your tools to your LLC, you are contributing them to its capital.

On the lease, your property management company would be the landlord (unless your State requires to put the owner on the lease).

First creating an llc is easy. You can do it yourself in a day or two online for a small fee. However the protection you will get from your llc will vary depend on the quality of your operating agreement. The ones provided by registrar services like legal zoom or other are ridiculously light and will be defeated easily in court. I would suggest that you get in touch with a real estate/asset protection attorney to draft one for you that you could reuse for all new llc after that. As a cheaper way you may use some of the templates sold by asset protection firms. Second, when you transfer your property to the llc please don’t use a quit claim deed. You may loose your title insurance. Use a warranty deed instead.

There is no such thing as being taxed as an llc... An single member llc is by default seen by the irs as a disregarded entity. A multi member llc is by default seen by the irs as a partnership. You can also choose to have your llc taxed as a c Corp or s corp if you make the election with the irs. It doesn’t change the fact that your company is still an llc. Taxation status and company legal formation are two different things. For a disregarded entity you will have no tax filing. For a partnership you will have to file a 1065 and issue K1 to its members.

First I’m not a lawyer and this answer is based on my own training and experience only. The fact that your llc is collecting rent without having any relation with the property (no consideration) will make it easy to pierce its veil and bring back all the liability to you personally.

If there are restrictions, you can use a land trust where you are the initial beneficiary then make an assignment to your LLC that will stay private.

I have been using zelle to collect rent for over a year and I have been very happy so far. However some banks are more annoying than other with zelle regarding the delay and maximum transaction amount. Some won’t even let use zelle on a business account. So it will depend where your tenants are banking. I’m closing most of my Wells Fargo accounts as they became a nightmare to deal with. On the other hand I’ve been ok with Chase so far.

Pelican cases are great for fragile equipment, but they are heavy even empty. I am using plenty of them for road travel and keep them for air travel only for some specific items. But for most air travel, aluminum cases rules.

I had a tenant wanting new stainless steel appliances. The old one was near the end of it useful life and i offered them to pay up to a certain amount for a new basic replacement but that they were welcome to pay for the difference for a better one if they wish. They decided to buy a top of the line one, took care of the order, delivery and installed it themselves. They were happy. I didn’t have to do any work, and at the end of the lease if they want to leave I’ll keep the appliance as part of the agreement.

If it is a curable situation (it could be in that case), you should give them notice that they have 7 days to fix the problem; if the same problem reoccur within 12 months, you will terminate the lease immediately. If that is the case then, you can then issue the 3 days notice and so forth.

If it's incurable, you can go with the 3 days notice immediately, but you could be challenged in court and that will eventually take longer to get them out.

I had traveled internationally with tools in some remote countries where you could not find tool easily. I used aluminum tool boxes. They are strong enough to hold a heavy load, and light enough when empty not to add too much weight.

In your case, if you believe that you will be over the free lugage allowance, the ground shipping option is probably a better alternative, expecially if you can do it a week in advance.

Last, if you have some time, it may be cheaper to buy used tools at a local pawn shop, and leave them after at your property in a locked tool shed. You never know when you'll have to come back.