Property Management without Licenses

[Simon W.]

Hi Everyone,

I have a different question about this. I know you see the subject and it's been beaten to death.

My question is this. I am close to starting my own firm with license and was wondering how to do a full service management. I came across Master Lease Agreement, but not sure if the owners are willing to do that so I want to have alternative options.

If my company is added to the owner's LLC as a manager, would that be okay or I still need to be licensed?

If that doesn't work, how about adding my company to their LLC as a member with 0% or 1% ownership? (not sure if they are willing to do this as well)

I am just trying to structure everything before I launch my firm.

Any advice would be great! 

Thank you.

[Jeff S.]

If you are talking about working in NY city I would imagine the licensing is strict. What is it about property management that attracts you? There are some things a PM does that you can do and there are some things you can't do. You can also do a lot of things if you are an employee of the owner.

You need to check with the local RE agency that regulates PM and see what you can do. I'll bet the items that are excluded from what you can do w/o a license is collect money, hold money, write leases, advertise and show properties and...

The idea of creating an LLC to get around licensing is really silly. That will not absolve you of liability if you do something stupid because you don't know what you are doing. You don't know what you don't know. Get a license unless you are only interested in the maintenance aspect of PM.