All Forum Posts by: Phil G.

You can open an escrow account for each tenant at a bank of your choice in the Commonwealth.  I use TD Bank for mine, but most banks will do it.  Your tenants name will be on the account, with you as escrow agent.  My experience is that you typically need W-9(s) from your tenant to open one.

http://www.upworthy.com/arkansas-has-a-lot-of-explaining-to-do-why-are-they-the-only-state-in-america-with-this-law?c=huf1?c=huf1

David-

The ruling in Swanson v. Commissioner basically said that an entity that has yet to sell any interest is not disqualified -- which would therefore allow for initial capitalization. Not to speak for Loren, but I believe his explanation picks up after the initial funding where you're into that disputed area of interpretation of the code.

IMHO, not sure why anyone would opt to use a custodian for a solo 401(k) unless you were just having someone like Fidelity manage traditional investments. People use them for SD-IRAs because the law mandates it, but with a 401(k) why add a level of complexity? Just my two cents -- tax deferred of course :)

Not an attorney or CPA here, but I spoke to quite a few while doing some research for a book. Most of the practitioners, in the "industry", I spoke to believe that purchasing additional shares of a single member LLC is OK by way of exemption under 4975(d)(9) and because there is no self-dealing of any sort taking place.

Tax code aside and purely speculation on my point and certainly wouldn't be a defense if you were in a jam with the IRS... The IRS has seemed to be pretty mum on this type of a transaction since Swanson was decided in 1996, I would think that if they saw this is as an abusive practice, we would have heard some anecdotes about negative audit results, something in a field manual, etc. When the IRS got wind of ROBS arrangements, a much less used arrangement, there were all over it, because they viewed it as a potentially abusive tax shelter. They did a study, issued guidelines for proper implementation along with stern warnings.

In many cases, especially where the IRA LLC is used as a holding company for real estate and other investments that could just be split amongst multiple IRA LLCs and is not truly an operating business, forming new LLCs would be the solution around the code -- inconvenient, costly, and possibly resulting in lots of additional 990Ts to process, but it wouldn't change the investments being made or made the underlying investment transactions executed any more of a prohibited transaction.

There are still some attorneys who don't believe that the concept of an IRA LLC is kosher, despite Swanson.

Just my humble opinion.

Tenants know that even though security is not be used for last month's rent, there isn't much you can actually do to prevent it. If you know they're definitely leaving at the end of the month, serving an eviction notice is pretty much a waste of time. They'll be gone before you get into court. If you're not sure they're leaving, that's another issue. After they leave, if there is damage, you can seek a judgment in small claims court. Court judgments get picked up by the credit bureaus without any action on your part.

I used to charge first, last and security.

Is there a way to suppress the "john and mary are now colleagues" type messages that I see?

Only Homepath properties designated on homepath.com as being eligible for Homepath mortgage or Homepath renovation loan with the "sticker" are eligible for Homepath financing.

There are no prepayment penalties with USDA RD Single Family program.

Not sure about Hawaii, but in the states I'm licensed in, there is no legal requirement to use a "state contract". In most states, those contracts are provided by the state board of Realtors for their members and agents who aren't Realtors, aren't even supposed to use them unless they purchase them from the association. Our state governments don't provide or endorse the contracts. In Massachusetts, I have two sets of standard contracts I can use -- one set provided by the Mass. Association of Realtors and one from the local board I belong to, the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, each having pros and cons. Brokers who are Realtors can dictate what contracts to use and E&O insurance companies generally prefer the standard contracts be used.