I also have an office in China and both manufacture and import products from overseas.

IRS instructions for Schedule E, lines 12 and 13 states: In most cases, to determine the interest expense allocable to your rental activities, you must have records to show how the proceeds of each debt were used.

I think our lawyer is just overly cautious - says that if the LLC want's to be shady they can shut down the operation and instruct for our deposit not to be released from escrow.In any case, appreciate all the advice - we agree with all your comments and that was our gut feel but always nice to hear some affirmation.

I'm in my mid-20's and work in the J-town area in the manufacturing field.I've had a few entrepreneurial experiences, but decided to get serious when a loved one was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago.

For example, their application form asked whether the money is to be sent via check or wire transfer, and when we marked "check", they still called to ask for wiring instructions because that is how they decided to send the money.

One fact that you uncover, example, the gasoline manufacturing plant next door, the rental properties that surround your property, etc.  

In order instruct clients on which documents to send, the custodian needs to know the investment structure: Private Equity investment into a company OR secured/unsecured loan to a company.  

He sets major commercial projects for a lot of the manufacturers.  

However, many brokers issue CDAs, as Fred mentioned, which alleviates the reposrting responsibility (in their opinion) because the funds never passed through their account to report, since we issue a check payable to the agent, per the brokers instructions.

The creation of the CFPB lit a lot of fires under other regulators - state and federal and the intertwining complications between retailing manufactured homes and lending on manufactured homes suddenly emerged from under the radar to being in everyone's gunsights.There are ways for small operators to still function, but not without cost, and not without complication.