Running My Furnished House Hack as a Business

Running My Furnished House Hack as a Business

Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2020 · 3 posts · 1 vote

Greetings! 

Looking for some feedback on my situation: I am getting ready to close on a 4-bedroom town home that I will live in (house hack) as my primary residence. I  plan to furnish the common areas and 3 remaining bedrooms which I will rent by the room, on a mid- to long-term lease.

I'm interested in the idea of setting up a business (LLC) to essentially manage the rental aspect. The LLC would collect security deposits and rents. I am wondering, however, what kind of expenses could be considered business expenses while I'm living in the property. Are expenses related to furnishing the property considered start-up costs for the business? Can the LLC pay for capital expenditures and/or utilities for the property? (I assume the actual mortgage should be paid from my personal account because the loan is for a primary residence?)

By doing this, I'm hoping to build business credit/history, separate expenses, and eventually scale the business to manage future investment properties (likely furnished rentals). Is this a sound line of thinking? I'm also curious if I could transfer the property to the LLC once I move out. In this case, do I need to refinance before?

I welcome all feedback, thanks in advance!

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Residential Real Estate Broker · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2014 · 54 posts · 23 votes
4y

Taxes can be rather nuanced, so I would recommend running all these questions by your accountant/CPA. But couple notes.. 

- generally speaking, start up expenses that are required to run your business are typically tax deductible. With that said, since you live in the home, perhaps, you can only deduct a portion? (ie. if you occupy 25% of the home, maybe you can only deduct 75% of the cost). Would be interested in what an accountant says about this. 

- Regarding utilities, it may work similar to a home office deduction for a small business (similar to what I described above - basically you determine the sq ft of the home being used for business, and that portion is tax deductible. Again, I would check with a CPA

- Regarding LLC... you do not need to refinance to deed the property into an LLC. Just work with a deed service and they can handle this for you for a couple hundred bucks. Side note, since this is your personal loan, mortgage notes generally have a "due on sale clause". In short, this basically means that if you transfer/sell/assign the property, the lender has the ability to call the note due. This is extremely rare, but definitely something to be aware of.

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  • Residential Real Estate Broker · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2014 · 54 posts · 23 votes
    4y

    Taxes can be rather nuanced, so I would recommend running all these questions by your accountant/CPA. But couple notes.. 

    - generally speaking, start up expenses that are required to run your business are typically tax deductible. With that said, since you live in the home, perhaps, you can only deduct a portion? (ie. if you occupy 25% of the home, maybe you can only deduct 75% of the cost). Would be interested in what an accountant says about this. 

    - Regarding utilities, it may work similar to a home office deduction for a small business (similar to what I described above - basically you determine the sq ft of the home being used for business, and that portion is tax deductible. Again, I would check with a CPA

    - Regarding LLC... you do not need to refinance to deed the property into an LLC. Just work with a deed service and they can handle this for you for a couple hundred bucks. Side note, since this is your personal loan, mortgage notes generally have a "due on sale clause". In short, this basically means that if you transfer/sell/assign the property, the lender has the ability to call the note due. This is extremely rare, but definitely something to be aware of.

  • Real Estate Agent · Chandler, AZ · Member since 2022 · 216 posts · 156 votes
    4y

    Daniel, 

    Happy to connect you with my friend and RE CPA Jeremy Bottlinger of Somerset CPA/Advisors. He works for a large firm but helps local investors on the side, he is based in Gilbert and is going to speak at our next meet up. 

    Good luck, 

    Andrew

  • New to Real Estate · Georgia/Florida · Member since 2021 · 22 posts · 7 votes
    4y
    Quote from @Luis Silva:

    Taxes can be rather nuanced, so I would recommend running all these questions by your accountant/CPA. But couple notes.. 

    - generally speaking, start up expenses that are required to run your business are typically tax deductible. With that said, since you live in the home, perhaps, you can only deduct a portion? (ie. if you occupy 25% of the home, maybe you can only deduct 75% of the cost). Would be interested in what an accountant says about this. 

    - Regarding utilities, it may work similar to a home office deduction for a small business (similar to what I described above - basically you determine the sq ft of the home being used for business, and that portion is tax deductible. Again, I would check with a CPA

    - Regarding LLC... you do not need to refinance to deed the property into an LLC. Just work with a deed service and they can handle this for you for a couple hundred bucks. Side note, since this is your personal loan, mortgage notes generally have a "due on sale clause". In short, this basically means that if you transfer/sell/assign the property, the lender has the ability to call the note due. This is extremely rare, but definitely something to be aware of.

    Luis,

    When working with a deed service they can make it legal for you to transfer title over to llc or is this just transferring it? And its up to you to get a loan without a due on sale clause or take the risk 
  • Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2020 · 3 posts · 1 vote
    4y
    Quote from @Andrew McGuire:

    Daniel, 

    Happy to connect you with my friend and RE CPA Jeremy Bottlinger of Somerset CPA/Advisors. He works for a large firm but helps local investors on the side, he is based in Gilbert and is going to speak at our next meet up. 

    Good luck, 

    Andrew


     Andrew,

    That'd be great, would love to connect! Much appreciated.

  • Real Estate Agent · Chandler, AZ · Member since 2022 · 216 posts · 156 votes
    4y

    @Daniel Hoop

    Please meet @Jeremy Bottlinger of Somerset CPA & Advisors

  • Accountant · Phoenix Metro · Member since 2018 · 22 posts · 13 votes
    4y

    @Daniel Hoop

    Let me know how I can help. Looking forward to talking soon.

    Have a good one!

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