All Forum Posts by: Dave Rosenfield

Situation:

Few months back, Solar panel company calls and says they are working with local power company to lighten the load on the grid. They would like to do a survey of the house to see if the house qualifies. They are just informing us about the survey and will call when it is done. Never get a call back...

Go to house today, see solar panels on roof. I ask tenant about it, he says he signed off on them and that the solar company said they talked to me and I said it was ok. I informed him about my conversation with the company about the survey and he said the only survey they did was to see how many panels to put on.

So, can a Solar company put panels on a house with just the tenant consent? Do I have any legal grounds to have them removed at the cost of the Solar company? I am about to call the company, want to get my facts straight before I do.

I was curious as to if anyone has a cleaning company they use/would recommend in the San Diego area. I just had some long term tenants move out and the last company I used is no longer in business. Appreciate any info.

I love the massive amounts of information in this thread. After reading everyone's replies and talking with a lawyer, it seems the best way to go for the short term is to do the unsecured loan for family and friends since there is a greater trust relationship. For the long run I will be looking at starting the LLC for each property to gain a better security and to avoid the securities issues.

I think I am slowly understanding, but still a little confused. I will be using a hard money lender to cover the cost of the purchase and construction costs. He is only covering 80% of the purchase price, so to cover the remaining 20%, I am using a portion of my own cash and the collective cash from the investments of family and friends. 

I am having each of them sign an agreements stating that they are loaning (investing) me the money for no longer than 12 months at a 10% return,and that is the extent of their involvement in the process of fixing and flipping a property. I will be doing everything else from finding the property, fixing, and reselling. Once sold, I will cut them a check for their investment plus earnings.

Since they are not investing in a specific property but in me, does this put me into the securities realm? Or should I collect the money, find the property, then work the process of fractionalize the loans or put everyone in first, second, third, etc positions?

I hope I am not nuking this....

@Michael Evans 

For the LLC, I started a company called Rosenfield Real Estate Investments, but it sits as a sole proprietorship. I have looked into making it an LLC and if I do so, would I just buy all the properties under that LLC or create LLCs for each property under the parent LLC? Is that even possible?

Thanks for the replies. Right now its just family and friends with hard cash. I haven't set up as an LLC or S Corp but really looking at doing so as it might make this process easier.

I am getting into the fix and flip market and I have family and friends who are interested in investing with me. Basically they will lend me the money to use for a property and get a 10% return on their investment. While doing some research and talking with a business lawyer, I found out that their might be possible securities issues by doing this. 

Question is: How do I get private investments from family and friends without having to worry about securities and the exchange commission (without starting an LLC or Corp)?

Also, does anyone have a sample investment agreement that covers this?