All Forum Posts by: Will Wu

Originally posted by @Jerry W.:

@Will Wu $10K is insane. The fee to file an LLC in Wyoming is only $100 per company. The package I use for books is about $80. Wyoming had the first LLC, but Delaware and a few other states have been in a race to get the most business friendly. Filing in a different state will not have as many advantages as most folks think.

@Kimberly H.did a great job of explaining some of the dangers many investors are unaware of that make their LLC useless anyway.

$10K was a package to create and asset protection package with several LLC (like 4 or 5). Anyway I though it was insane too but some fancy attorney firms they just shoot any price to see if you fall for it. I did not even bother to try to negotiate with this firm.

Yep. $10K! They said they will give me some fancy corporate kits with seals and form etc. Those are useless I can get those by myself for $50. Also each lawyers will tell you different opinions so at the end you just need to decide what you want to do cause there is no a certain thing to do that will guarantee you are 100% shielded against liabilities. At the end I filed all LLCs online by myself at the State website and only had to pay $200 for each LLC. It took me 10 minutes to do each LLC. Once you know exactly what to do there is no need to hire a lawyer to do this. It is fairly simple.

Originally posted by @Christopher R.:

@Will Porter - Does it seem like I'm trying to do this myself? Ha ha. I'm cheap (and stubborn) that way. I'm just cringing at how much a lawyer is going to charge me to set this up. But I may have to bite the bullet and just do it.

I'll share with you what I did. I too had many questions and went to a couple of asset protection lawyers. One of them told me to create multiples LLC in Wyoming. They wanted to charge me $10K for the service. But they usually give you around 1 hour free consultancy to answer your questions. Talk to an attorney for free, clarify all your doubts and file the LLCs by yourself or get a low cost service to do that. Unless you are looking to do something very complex you should not need an attorney to set this up for you.

Originally posted by @Kendall T.:

I am in Florida as well, and I agree Ac is really necessary in fl. My rental house doesn't even have central air, and I just put in window Ac units, you should read reviews, I did and went with a little more expensive one at Home Depot over the super cheap option.  I was in lowes wanting to buy a really small one for cheap and was advised by someone else who was getting his third cheap Ac unit that it wasn't good.  I also wanted to spring for a nicer one, as it was quieter as well.  What I like about the window Ac units is that they are cheap, no service calls, and a new one can be bought and be replaced by me when it goes out.

 I guess your rental place must be nicer. I rent to low income tenants and I learned that no matter how good is the product that you gave them they will destroy it very soon. So going for cheap is the best option for me. The same apply for appliances. I only go for the lowest cost or sometimes I buy second hand. There is no point in giving them better brands appliances they don't know and don't care about maintenance. I have tenants that called me complaining their electric bills was so high because the (central) A/C keep running and running. When I went to check for it I found out they set up the thermostat to 50 degrees and don't know how to operate it. I learned that for low income tenants just keep things as simple as possible. Fridge must be without ice maker and water dispenser. A/C the best is to use manual control without any electric thermostat panels. Stove use ceramic type cause they will keep burning the coils all the time. 

Since each apartment cost approximately $40K. 3 to 5K is too much investment for A/C for these low income properties. The split units has another concerns is that the tenants will probably loose the control remote and it won't be easy to replace them.

I used to have a guy fix A/C after he get off the work. It ended up costing me more money cause he was not licensed and just could not get things done in 1 visit. Now I just stick with licensed contractors when it comes to stuff like electric and A/C. Besides the tenants do not really want to wait too long since in FL is always very hot and humid.

Originally posted by @Thomas Quinn:

What is common in your area for rentals in that price range?

 in West Palm Beach, FL. Rentals for 2/1 in low income are always includes A/C, fridge and stove. 

Originally posted by @Franklin Romine:

If you have AC I would stick with it.  I use the cheap air filters that you can see through.  They work better if the filter gets change once a year.  They won't change the filter on the window unit either.  You will have $400+ in purchase and installing good window units.  

 Unfortunately here in Florida we need to provide A/C. And when A/C stops working I need to treat is as an emergency cause the tenants will not tolerate living without A/C. Not only causes me stress to have to call the A/C guy and ask him go immediately. The repair bills are always more then $125 per visit. My thinking is the windows A/C is just less maintenance or no maintenance at all. Also if one brokes the one 2 are still working it will not become a emergency that needs to be addressed immediately. Besides my current central A/C are old and they just need constant repairs. Central A/C makes more sense in larger apartment with higher rent. 

Hello, I have multiples rental 2/1 apartments Florida rented for low income tenants ($650). Most of them have central A/C but I found out that these are really pain in the neck and very expensive maintenance. The tenants don't change or clean their filters, the coils get dirty and we have to spend $150 to clean the coils. Plus the A/C needs maintenances and repair on average the A/C company will charge $125 to $200 to fix it. Considering the low rent that is very large expense. I'm planning to change all the central A/C by just disabling them and put windows A/C that cost $110 at Walmart. I have other units using windows A/C and never had any complaints and I don't have to call the A/C guy to fix. I will rather buy a new one and install it. Do you think this make sense?

Originally posted by @Andy Collins:

If you are managing the properties or involved in the rehab, an LLC won't protect you from something you do wrong.

If a tenant tells you they smell gas, and you don't do anything about it, the house blows up and someone is hurt or killed, I don't care if you have 100 LLC's each being held by another entity,,,you will held personally responsible,,,which is why insurance and management style are your first line of defense in protecting from lawsuits

I think in this country we are exposed to frivolous lawsuits all the time. When people know you have assets you are exposes and in our lifetime we will have to deal with some lawsuits if you are going to own a lot of assets. Even the most unreasonable lawsuits. I agree we must be very careful and understand the laws before becoming a landlord. That is our first line of defense. Then all properties must have GL insurance and personally get an extra layer of umbrella insurance. Nevertheless the laws are clear that and LLC is a company and your personal liabilities cannot extended to your companies. They key is if you can put more than 2 partners on your LLC. The more shareholders you have on your LLC the better will be your protection. We are not talking only about lawsuits caused on your properties. This will shield lawsuits caused outside of your properties like in your job, or if you run into someone, etc. I believe having LLC is an extra layer of protection that any serious investor must have.