I realize barrow is very isolated but did you try looking around in one of the more populated areas of AK before looking out of state?

@David Krulac, unless it is truly passive, if it is passive then you do not have to register as a Foreign llc. this is from Pennsylvania Department of State:Registration of Foreign Associations –General Rule and ExclusionsGeneral Rule – A foreign filing association or foreign limited liability partnership may not do business in this Commonwealth until it registerswith the Department of State.Exclusions – Activities of a foreign filing association or foreign limited liability partnership that do not constitute doing business in thisCommonwealth include the following:(1) Maintaining, defending, mediating, arbitrating or settling an action or proceeding.(2) Carrying on any activity concerning its internal affairs, including holding meetings of its interest holders or governors.(3) Maintaining accounts in financial institutions.(4) Maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange and registration of securities of the association or maintaining trustees ordepositories with respect to the securities.(5) Selling through independent contractors.(6) Soliciting or obtaining orders by any means if the orders require acceptance outside of this Commonwealth before the orders becomecontracts.(7) Creating or acquiring indebtedness, mortgages or security interests in property.(8) Securing or collecting debts or enforcing mortgages or security interests in property securing the debts and holding, protecting ormaintaining property so acquired.(9) Conducting an isolated transaction that is not in the course of similar transactions.(10) Owning, without more, property.(11) Doing business in interstate or foreign commerce.Being an interest holder or governor of a foreign association that does business in this Commonwealth does not by itself constitute doingbusiness in this Commonwealth.In general terms, any conduct more regular, systematic, or extensive than that described above constitutes doing business and requires theforeign association to register to do business.

The room is off to the right side of the house and is pretty isolated from the rest of the house so I want to convert it into a Airbnb to give it some use.

Without doing a deep dive on his reports yet, I put together a rough spreadsheet isolating the performance of our 401k balance over the next 30 years (when I hit 60) vs. an owner occupied 4-plex using a 3.5% down FHA loan.Please feel free to poke holes in my numbers or remind me of something I'm not considering... otherwise the decision seems pretty clear to me that we'd want to withdraw our 401k!

Most important thing is to open a separate checking/savings account for the rental to isolate the activity and make it easier come tax time, etc.

This may be able to isolate the income so it is just LLC business income instead of rental income and you can still keep the tax free allowance.

I even had someone suggest I put the LLC in a trust so it's totally seperate from me ... the problem here is that i'm getting wierd answers ... some people say that I will have issues getting a mortgage or insurance or whatever ... how would you structure this to isolate yourself from divorce?  

Plus, it's so far from my family, and so isolated. 

Registration of Foreign Associations – General Rule and ExclusionsGeneral Rule – A foreign filing association or foreign limited liability partnership may not do business in this Commonwealth until it registers with the Department of State.Exclusions – Activities of a foreign filing association or foreign limited liability partnership that do not constitute doing business in this Commonwealth include the following: (1) Maintaining, defending, mediating, arbitrating or settling an action or proceeding. (2) Carrying on any activity concerning its internal affairs, including holding meetings of its interest holders or governors. (3) Maintaining accounts in financial institutions. (4) Maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange and registration of securities of the association or maintaining trustees or depositories with respect to the securities. (5) Selling through independent contractors. (6) Soliciting or obtaining orders by any means if the orders require acceptance outside of this Commonwealth before the orders become contracts. (7) Creating or acquiring indebtedness, mortgages or security interests in property. (8) Securing or collecting debts or enforcing mortgages or security interests in property securing the debts and holding, protecting or maintaining property so acquired. (9) Conducting an isolated transaction that is not in the course of similar transactions. (10) Owning, without more, property. (11) Doing business in interstate or foreign commerce.Being an interest holder or governor of a foreign association that does business in this Commonwealth does not by itself constitute doing business in this Commonwealth.In general terms, any conduct more regular, systematic, or extensive than that described above constitutes doing business and requires the foreign association to register to do business.

The city does not like to make isolated pockets of residential areas.