All Forum Posts by: Robert Hursey

I am in a similar situation Dan. I am curious to see what you find. My brother and I plan to partner and want to do it RIGHT! I have yet to speak to real estate attorney, but from what I have gathered so far... 

1. LLC's are expensive in IL compared to other states ($500-$600 to set up and $250-$300 per year renewal) - fees associated with other types of entities differ).

2. Look into all the entities to choose from (LLC, Series LLC, Limited Partnership, Family Limited Partnership, S-Corp, C-Corp). Each has different fees and rules and pros and cons.

3. Ownership of LLC's and Series LLC's can be easily searched on the IL Dept of State's website (provides no anonymity).

4. A blanket insurance policy with high coverage is your first line of defense.

5. Never purchase property in your own name - use n Illinois Land Trust specifically, and do not name the trust in a way that the ownership can be traced back to you or your family (idea is to hide ownership from attorneys to discourage them).

6. Place the trust under the entity,

7. Use a different entity for several properties or even one per property if you want to be extra cautious. 

8. Use one blanket insurance policy for each business ownership arrangement (eg - one for personal, one for anything owned by you that is for profit, one for anything owned by you and person X, another for person Y, etc).

Thanks Mike.  Thanks Ronald.  I agree with everything you all are saying.  I am simply relaying what I was told, which may have been wrong, or may have been misunderstood on my part.  If anyone feels like calling to verify what I heard is in fact incorrect, go for it.  I'd love to know the TRUTH.  I looked for this info online and read through all I could find and this was stated nowhere, yet when I called, that is what I was told.

Fernando, all I am telling you is what I was told and that the word "permit" was never uttered in the conversation. I do not work for Belleville.

This has nothing to do with permits.  I did not call about permits.  I told them I heard Belleville has some regulations that make it tough on landlords and the woman I spoke to explained their requirements for non-owner occupied repairs. She said if I am a landlord and I don't live at the residence, I have to to hire a licensed contractor to do any work. Period. If they told you something different, I'd like to know.

I called the office of Health, Housing, and Building (http://www.belleville.net/index.aspx?NID=345) directly and they told me Belleville requires all non-owner occupied repairs to be done by a licensed contractor. They will not allow a landlord to do his/her own repairs.  Due to this restriction, I am selling my one house in Belleville as long as I can get a decent price and I will never own there again.

Thanks everyone who has replied so far.  I would like to keep this discussion focused on the St. Louis metropolitan region. Chicagoland is an entirely different animal. 

Vince, that's a good point about my analysis, but I need to know where to look first.  I do not want to analyze every deal in the St. Louis area if there are places where I would NEVER (or never again) own a property (eg Belleville , IL, with it's non-owner repair restrictions. 

Marvin, you are pretty on point with the type of information I am trying to gather.  I am putting together a document to aggregate info on municipal property laws, restrictions, regulations, etc. Per information on their city website, Edwardsville DOES have a yearly inspection as well as rental property registration (http://www.cityofedwardsville.com/index.asp?SEC={0B9F5ACC-A8C0-4B03-9F59-8BA98B689F2E}&Type=SUPERFORMS). If anyone would like to help me gather information, please PM me.  I have a document to share on Google Drive.

Nothing is bullet proof, of course, but I am not going to put properties in my name alone and cross my fingers either.  That is why I am weighing my options right now before I pull the trigger.

I guess I should add, I am in Glen Carbon. When I say IL vs MO, I mean the Metro East (Madison and St. Clair counties specifically) vs St. Louis city and county. For example, LLC's are roughly $600 to set up (with attorney fees) and $250 to renew, where as they are $50 online in MO. I assume LLP's are about the same. Illinois has a specific kind of Land Trust a lot of investors take advantage of as a layer of asset protection. I also have heard property taxes are way higher in Madison and St. Clair counties vs St. Louis city and county.

I would like to start a discussion over the pros and cons of investing in MO vs IL.  I am considering both.  Topics to discuss could be asset protection, landlord/tenant law, market stability, honestly anything.

Michael, go to meetup.com, and yes, Illinois REIA has a facebook and a website as well. Metro East REIA has a website, and might have a facebook. George used to be the president of MEREIA and recently started ILREIA. If you cannot find things, differ your search words (IL vs Illinois, Metro East vs ME, etc.).