I ask them to show me the email and what I gather, from the little Spanish I understand, is some scam artist is trying to get them to mail a deposit.

Given this situation, I assume that the best way to set this up would be to create an LLC with both of us as equal partners/shareholders, and have all cash flow and expenses deposited and paid out of an account opened under the LLC?

You receive a W-2 from an investment banking firm - no need for a company there, earned income.You receive a W-2 from the DJ business now and so you would not want to receive wages or earned income and deposit it into an LLC and report that as SE income and be subject to the SE taxes a second time on the same money and you would not want to deposit it into an S-corp and then be forced to pay yourself W-2 earnings and pay payroll taxes (same as SE tax) for a second time on the same money again.The only question left is the side gigs you do and I would put that on your Sched C income and buy yourself a bond insurance policy which is probably pretty cheap.Joe

I have my deposited directly into my business account from section 8, which means I cashed the check.

While it might be easy to claim banks are broke the facts are a bit different.Most banks who have been seeing write-offs from bad mortgage backed securities are not banks who take deposits.

Reviewing existing lease, acquiring their security deposit?

No security deposit is going to cover the potential damage that could be easily done to a granite counter top.Its not that tenants don't deserve granite counter tops.

Operating expenses include taxes, insurance, management, maintenance, vacancy, advertising, entity maintenance, legal expenses, evictions, setouts, damage done by the tenants (in excess of the security deposit), office supplies, lawsuits, utilities (at least during vacancies), capital expenses (not technically an operating expense), etc, etc, etc.

I just deposit the checks.

Now take the cash advance and deposit it into an no restrictions account.