We were never really 100% sure until July 26th, 2013.As I was at Brake Check having the usual maintenance done, I stumbled across the day's San Antonio Express-News (paper) and on the headline reads "Valley Green-Card Fraud Alleged".Our investor who within months of opening his Regional office earlier last year recruited up to $100MM in foreign investment funds.It turns out the FBI had been following him in all his activities since last year and are now charging him with wire fraud, money laundering, and transportation of stolen property.Yes we didn't close a deal and yes God saved us from a future pain of unnecessary loss.You may Google "USA Now Regional Office LLC" then click news...

Some states have much more complicated scenarios.

A good attorney in real estate law could probably tell you in 15 minutes what the legal effect is but it might be more complicated.

Principle reduction is much more complicated due to the tax benifits part and is a topic for another post.

Granted, I know there are scenarios where the responsibilities would get more complicated, such as move outs, filling vacancies, evictions, etc.

However, I think having real property makes that more complicated and might require going through the court system and hiring an attorney.

Unnecessary complexity isn't good.Most big-time investors I know have relatively straightforward plain-vanilla asset protection strategies.

That assumption is just as reasonable as any other assumption you might make.Once you get rid of the unnecessary complexity, there isn't much you shouldn't be able to calculate using a simple excel spreadsheet (or a pen and paper). 99% of it is addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.Don't make it harder than it needs to be!

I made a spread sheet to keep track of which properties the locks were on, Tenant at the time, etc..It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.

I prefer it over a double close which gets a bit more complicated to orchestrate.