All Forum Posts by: Jeff Stein

I am not sure what you are asking. Are you interested in setting up an LLC in Tennessee? I am in Wisconsin and the process is very easy on the state website and follow the instructions. Takes only a few minutes.

Evaluating the deal will not be much from 4 unit to 5 plus units besides from a few extra expenses. There are a few unique things that will be involved in larger properties:

1. Elevator repair and maintenance
2. Common area cleaning and maintenance
3. Different loan terms
4. Parking fees/reserved spaces

@Juan F. Saa

I recommend shopping around more. Those fees are very high and you may not need all the services they are offering. With regard to legal fees. The main things I use my lawyer for is to write a lease template, compile an offer to purchase, and then someone different for evection‘s. Overall not that many legal fees. As far as tax and accounting, I now have my own business that does this, but initially I did my own bookkeeping I can tell you you may be offer services you don’t necessarily need for those kinds of numbers you mentioned.

Feel free to shoot me a message anytime. Happy to help. 

@Ryan Lindberg

One place to start would be talk to loan officer at smaller community banks around Milwaukee. Community banks and credit unions can typically work more with you, but I slightly higher interest rate. Make sure you have a few years of your tax return data to back up your income as well. Although it is hard starting out to have a high down payment, this definitely will help you get more traditional loans. 

@Kyle Knowles

Nobody has a crystal ball. Trying to time the stock market or housing market is unlikely to pay off over the course of a career or lifespan. I recommend moving forward on good deals and creating a contingency strategy in case the market does crash.

What do you find interesting? This is far more important than a degree that matches real estate especially if you plan to use the degree to fund your real estate ventures. If you want to get into this business school put 100% of your energy in maximizing your chances. 

It may take a few year to earn enough money to start investing if you are not raising outside funds so you want to do something that you hopefully enjoy.

I am not an expert in cost segregation and I recommend you speak with someone who is, but I have found that the typical price point that a study makes sense is at least $450k-$500k. It has cost approx $2500 to get these done and we have made this back and more with the deductions.

Real estate professional status means you work at least 750 hrs per year in real estate. If this is you, you can deduct real estate losses against more of your income. Very powerful way to offset income and pairs well with accelerated depreciation from cost segregation studies. Feel free to message me if you have any questions. Happy to help.

@Ray Thorsen

Those fees seem to be a bit high. I have some contacts at US Bank, Tri-City national, and corner stone community bank. I mostly deal with commercial business banking, which likely won't work if you don't have the duplexes in the LLC your different company. All are located in the greater Milwaukee area, but I would be happy to introduce you if you don't find anybody local. 

@Dare Adebonojo

Tracking all your expenses is definitely something you can do by yourself and with the help of a software like QuickBooks or Stessa. As your business grows, it will become more time-consuming and some layers of complexity, but by no means impossible. If it is something you enjoy I definitely recommend trying it. You could always find an accountant or tax specialist to review your work. I did my own and QuickBooks for about two years and struggled with keeping up my bookkeeping and dreading the time I had to spend doing it. I started a tax and accounting Business and now have great people doing this work for me who really love it They can do it quicker and more accurate than I ever could. 

@Dave R Ludolph

I have done something similar to this with two of the properties I own. One of the easiest ways to do this is having them as percentage owner of the LLC. In addition to the LLC you need a lawyer to draft an operating agreement that everyone will sign. In this document it'll dictate who is managing, how decisions are made, and how payouts are done.

Just as an aside, paying out monthly will I had lots of work to your bookkeeping. I recommend add most pain out on a quarterly basis to keep the accounting more simple.

Feel free to shoot me a message if you have any other questions about this. It’s not very complicated thankfully, but it does require a little money and a lawyer to make sure everything is done correctly.