All Forum Posts by: Dustin Karas

This is a newb question. We are in the process of purchasing our first investment property. We are not setting up an LLC at this point. The question is, can we still have a company name for our our investment properties instead of using our personal names?

If so, can we legally use that company name to purchase the property, apply for a credit card, etc?

Thanks for everybody's replies...very helpful. 

Regarding deductions, I was thinking it might be possible to deduct part of a weekend away with my wife if part of that time was intentionally discussing our investment decisions, etc.

Perhaps it's not worth trying to do it for the tax savings for the additional risk of getting audited even if it is legitimate.

I'm less concerned about LLC liabilities protections. I'm really just thinking about the benefit of running some expenses through the LLC so they are deductible to me. i.e. A dinner out with my wife where we discuss our investment property could be considered a business expense and therefore deductible.

It doesn't seem to expensive to set up an LLC and to maintain it doesn't look like more than $100/yr. Am I missing something on that front?

I'm considering investing with a commercial real estate syndicate. The syndicate is an LLC itself. Would it make sense for me to invest through a personal LLC? I don't believe it would provide any more liability protections per se, but I thought it might let me start using some expenses to create tax deductions for business that might have otherwise been considered personal expenses with no tax deduction value.

Thoughts?