Bay Area Opportunity Zone Investment

[Edward Ruan]

So I'm currently in the process of buying a house hack property that's in an Opportunity Zone (OZ) and am currently buying under my name for the lower interest rate. The intent was to transfer the property after purchase to an LLC, which I cleared with the loan company.

After diving deeper into OZs though, I realized that there are many more requirements to actually take advantage of them rather than just buying an OZ, such as the need to invest through an Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund(QOZF) and the need for substantial improvement. This means I'll be looking to set my LLC up as a two-person LLC and make sure the structure requirements meet all of the QOZF qualifications, such as being taxed as a corporation, etc.

Does anybody know if this will still work if it's technically originally purchased under my name however? Or have I already made an irreversible mistake in not doing the OZ property purchase under the QOZF?

Thanks to anybody who contributes their input, I know it's not a substitute for legal advice but specific info like this on OZs seems to be pretty hard to find. I'll probably be reaching out to a lawyer/taxperson who is knowledgeable in OZs also, I was just hoping the collective BP knowledge might help to give me some insight. Thanks everyone! 

[Philip Ma]

I think an LLC taxed as a partnership is a better answer from a tax perspective. If your QOF is only going to hold the one asset, then a single-tier QOF is do-able, but you have to be aware of the 90% asset test compliance requirement and manage your cash in the QOF accordingly. I just wrote a blog post on using a single-tier vs 2-tier QOF structure here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...