We are in almost an identical situation in the Seattle area and have a year to sell before we have to start paying capital gains on our rental.

Here are the facts -- I would love to know what you think about this one:PROPERTY:15 units in three identical buildings, all 2/1, vacant. 14 units need light rehab (less than 5K each), and one unit had a fire in it (needs estimated 25K rehab).

@Brad Chatrou It depends on the property and the professional doing the title search... and as @Wayne Brooks pointed out, sometimes you need to rely on third parties such as the government (ugh) to provide information.If the property hasn't changed hands much and the parcel being sold is the identical piece of land that it was 100 years ago, things are fairly straightforward.

Yep, not to mention you can have two identical houses in every way except location.

This is identical to a strategy here when houses were upside down with mtg.s and the foreclosures took forever.

I dug deeper and read this: "Note that the identical mark could be registered to different parties if the goods and/or services are in no way related, e.g., for computers and soft drinks."

From a borrower point of view the underwriting criteria are identical between the two. 

This is the exact sales price for an identical home on a less attractive street one block over from mine.  

Using your example, if the HELOC had identical interest rate and identical extra principal payments and you timed the HELOC payments just right, you could save a maximum of $8 per year worth of interest.

Inadequate Initial funding of the entity.or fails to maintain a separate identity from its owners ( using the business bank account for business purchases, maintaining separate books)Conversion of entities Assets for Personal Benefit:Another factor that poses a risk of piercing the corporate veil is the draining of entities assets (such as payments of large salaries to shareholder-employees) that leaves the entity with inadequate resources to pay its debts.Do not commingle personal and entities assets.Maintain a separate entities bank account.Execute an operating agreement.Follow the provisions of an operating agreement.Have LLC member meetings according to the operating agreement or board meeting for S-corpTitle property in the name of the entity.Maintain insurance on property in the entities name.Sign all entities documents in the entities name, not the members' names.These steps will also provide a better defense against other creditors attempting to pierce the LLC veil.You might want to spend few hundred dollars if you are stressed about this and get a lawyer to set you up with correct entities.