LLC and rent checks

[Jason Houde]

Hello everyone! Happy New Year to All!! This is probably a simple question, but I opened and LLC and have just bought my first rental property. My question is regarding rent checks. Do I have the tenants make the checks out to me personally or to my LLC? Jason

[Dana Dunford]

Hi Jason,

Happy New Year! From a liability and an accounting perspective, you'll want the rent checks made out to the LLC. It's much easier to say "here's all of the income and expenses associated with my property" than to mix personal and business money. You will get a much better picture of the profitability of your rental with everything under the LLC.

Now a question for you -- why are you having the tenants write checks rather than pay online? Online payment is a much easier and consistent way to make sure that you get paid on-time, every time. We do online rent payment (happy to show you how) and it makes rent collection a lot easier.

Best,
Dana