The judge then declared that she had to take the "standing" issue under consideration; in other words, she didn't know either whether it should be the IRA or the beneficiary (who is the self-director, but doesn't hold signature power) should be the correct defendant, or whether the IRA could even be sued at all (even though the IRA can hold title).We argued the merits of the case which was pretty clear-cut in my favor.After about two month we received the judge's written verdict which stated that the beneficiary had accepted responsibility by a) signing the contract (which he shouldn't have since he didn't have signing power - that should have been the custodian)b) showing up to trial and arguing his casec) counter-suing me for damagesThe judge showed that there was no question as to who was entitled to the deposit; we had not removed any contingencies and the escrow company was court-ordered to release the deposit to me.

@Shadonna Loganyoud have to ask my accountant, however,....my instinct would be to say no, uncollected rent isn't income to them though one might argue that the house possession without payment could be considered so.

So setting up, let's say, a Delaware LLC, when you live in CA, probably won't get around the CA LLC tax unless you argued to CA that you run your business our of DE and pay DE taxes.

Ok, nothing to argue, your piece of advice is really good, for Brent and for me.

Books such as Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Abcs Of Real Estate Investing, and more books from the Rich Dad Series.

Example: ABC Properties 1550 LLC and ABC Properties 4539 LLC I have formed an LLC in the past but it didn't seem worth it but now I am getting into larger buildings and would like to start one up again.

Why did you waste your time arguing with this person?

Also, he said he could argue the bank doesn't have any damages, and since the LLC members were the same people as the owners (whom personally guaranteed the loan), it should not be a great concern.  

Check out The ABCs of real estate investing by Ken McElroy, or just blow through a lot of the bigger pockets podcasts.

If you are renting short term for those six weeks I'm sure you could argue it being vacation (should an issue arise).