All Forum Posts by: Becky Watkins

The articles don't need to have the owner? I guess I'll see how that works when I get to that step. I'm used to setting up sole-owner corps, where one person's name is all over all forms. A lot of them chose to be their own agent for service of process too.

Yeah we spent a couple hours on thesaurus.com ;) We're down to a couple words, I just wasn't trying to figure out what to attach to the end of it.

Rather, does that mean you get to avoid paying the $800 minimum annual tax?

And I agree that using your name is a good idea, and it is kind of a catchall because then it could be Mitch the CEO, Mitch the handyman (because the co is lenient with emails), Mitch the manager, etc. I've used lunarpages and had a package that allowed unlimited, or at least a lot of emails that I wasn't able to max out (twenty/fifty). I like godaddy for initial registration but would look into transfering to other companies for additional services.

This may be off-topic but how did you manage California to not know about the LLC? Doesn't your LLC have a business license?

Thanks, that helps a lot!

I searched this on the site and it seems the answer is mostly "it doesn't matter, don't worry about it" but I care strongly about branding and also making sure I don't use words that have a negative connotation. I need some general tips on naming a corporation.

For example, I used to want [] Capital Enterprises but that sounds so cold and big city. I want something that conveys "i'm on your side" while remaining professional. At least at this point, when i'll be focusing on wholesaling. Later down the road, I may still use that for a buy & hold company.

[] Properties
[] Property Solutions
[] Real Estate
[] Real Estate Solutions
[] Holdings

The above all seems like good options, but would [] Real Estate alone cause problems such as being accused of practicing real estate without a license? I don't want to go that route. I also read to stay away from investments, for securities reasons, so I'm looking for more tips like that - i don't want to miscategorized.

As far as the first word, I'm still working on that, but am trying to convey a sense of community, brotherhood and small town in a big city. Something that appeals to most people emotionally and reminds them that we (humanity) are all in this together. I know to stay away from my name and regional words such as "California" or "Orange County."

So while maybe the name may not matter, I do feel it's personally important to choose something warm as opposed to cold and corporate, big business sounding. (in most people's eyes, those are the "bad guys.")

We were thinking about going back to the original idea of forming a corporation with them. My husband is working on finding a CPA to discuss the details, but does the following sound like a viable option?

They have more capital, but we have a longer job history (they are both working students, one finishing her masters this summer). We were thinking if there is a way to be a part of the corporation (it would then be managing our own property) but not have any shares, thus not being subject to taxes for the income (we'd only get 10% or whatever we negotiate for pm fee). We'd like to avoid being employees of the company.

I know in one sense it may be similar to cosigning, which I am normally 200% against, but in this case it would be up to us to keep the property from defaulting, as managers. We would know better than/before them if the property is in trouble and I wouldn't want to just throw them under the bus if that ever happened. They want to just be financiers and have a place to live without worrying about rent so they can focus on school and other things, and we'd be in charge of operations.

There is also the option of purchasing it from them, but I know in that case they'd still have to move out so we aren't considered foreclosure counselors. But restructuring the corporation would be a option too, right? Where we become the primary shareholders instead of them if we provide the capital to save the property.

I'm just throwing stuff out there so I can have more focused questions for the CPA when we pick one.

Yes they would be living on the property but they don't want to deal with any of the details. My husband has experience from working for another property management company, and this is something that we wanted to do in the future, but that changes a lot. I didn't look up requirements yet, since it was initially something in the future, but I didn't think there would be certification required for property management. I think that would affect our plans as real estate investors. Thanks, this helped more than I thought it would!

We're just getting started and already found a property we like and can purchase. We probably won't have a problem finding a buyer, but the problem is we aren't incorporated yet. Our method on this was to seller-finance, but we ultimately want to have it under the corporate name. Are there any complications with buying the property as an individual, then selling it to the corporation. That time frame would give the current tenant the time to move out and our corporation the time to set up.

But then we would get double-taxed, wouldn't we? But we would sell it to the corporation for exactly for what we bought it, so there wouldn't be any profit. Thoughts and/or suggestions? This is a good deal we don't want to miss out on, but don't want to set us up in a worse position. Thanks for any help in advance!

My husband and I were discussing with another couple the idea of forming an LLC with them and buying a fourplex together. However, after running the numbers some more, it seems it might be better for them to try to get the loan on their own and we just manage the property while we use our capital to pursue other investments. They don't have any interest in managing the property besides picking up trash. It was our idea for the them to invest when they told us they had a decent amount saved up.

My question is - is it okay to hire a property manager while you have an FHA loan? Would it still be considered residential? No structure is different than what i know is legal - to live in a fourplex and rent out the other units, but property management is usually associated with commercial and investment properties. Thanks for any help!