All Forum Posts by: Mike S.

@Will Crocker

LLC don't provide tax benefit.

@Will Crocker

A revocable trust in general does not provide any asset protection.

However this life estate trust probably become irrevocable at the time of death of the grantor. I believe that in that case there is no inside liability risk to spread to the beneficiaries.

However, i don’t know what would be the risk regarding an outside liability on one of the beneficiary and how his/her interest could be threatened by it. You should look at the wording of the trust and how or if the beneficiaries can change or have power of direction over the trustee.

@Neil G.

If you own real estate in another country you should probably be eligible to open a local bank account in that country. It will facilitate receiving payment or paying bills locally. Then to transfer and convert currency, depending on the bank it could be either expensive or really expensive... use some third party exchange company like transferwise.

If it is only to receive money in the foreign country, transferwise also offers a way to receive local payment with a virtual local account number.

@Nathan Justus

Then you’ve got scammed into a third party website that sold you something that is free...

I have many LLC and I got all my EIN for free on the IRS website. Some were delivered immediately online, some I had to wait a week and were done by fax.

Even for a disregarded entity you would want your LLC to have its own EIN. You could theoretically use your own SSN for banking, but it will create confusion for some banks. By having its own EIN (that you can get for free by yourself on the IRS website), your entity will show some more degré of separation with you, helping to keep the company vail.

The most important document for your asset and liability protection would be your operating agreement. Using an online template is probably not the best way to do it and I would suggest that you have a good real estate asset protection attorney draft one for your own specific need.

Regarding business license, it all depend where your LLC is located, where it does business and the local jurisdiction requirement.

So far none of my banks have ever requested to see any of my licenses for any of my entities. They just required the state registration documents, EIN, director and/or members list with IDs and for some also the operating agreement.

In FL if someone shows sign that he has been living there (duration, receiving mail, having property on site), they can't be trespassed. If they don't pay a rent, you can do an ejectment that is supposed to be a little bit faster than an eviction. But without a court order or if they refused to leave on their own free will, you can't force them to be removed.

It is a civil matter, and a FL law enforcement officer who would take any action to illegally remove the person from the property risk to loose not only his job and his pension, but may also be faced with severe lawsuits...

The only recent change in the law that I am aware of was for transient resident (like a friend staying for a few days and who refuses to leave) where you can sign an affidavit that will let the law enforcement officer remove them. But it is still a gray area with not a lot of case law and the difference between a transient and a bona fide resident is blurry.

I understand having an S corp for flips, however, I don't understand using a corporation for rental. A company (either disregarded LLC or partnership) or a limited partnership would make more sense to me. It gives you liability and asset protection, without creating any additional tax burden. Using a corporation, on the other hand, may limit some of the real estate tax advantage...

@Tina Foltmer

Where is your rental located?

Doing real estate photography is one of the easiest task technically. Your subject is not moving and you have time... something that is inexistent in other part of the photographer activities. I would place wedding at the top of the list due to the time constraint and the pressure...

Mainly, any descent photographer can do it. What will differentiate them is the quality of their gear (camera, lenses, lights). Even with the quantum leap in quality in point and shoot and smartphone, a good DSLR with professional lenses is still ahead.

For sfh also you would need the now standard aerial shot that can be produced cheaply with a drone. A few years ago we were still using either telescopic last or helicopters.

You can shop for real estate photographers who will give you a good quote for their job, or you can encourage aspiring new photographers by looking on Craigslist. Just make sure that they have quality gear to do the job and ask them for some sample of their portfolio to see what they consider good quality.

If you want to get fancy you can also get a video tour or a virtual tour of the condo.

What kind of LLC are you talking about?

An LLC is a legal entity that has nothing to do with taxes.

Your LLC per se is non existent for the IRS. You can choose different status. If it is a single member, then by default it will be disregarded by the IRS unless you elect to have it taxed as an S or C corp.

If it is a multi members LLC it will be by default seen as a partnership, unless you elect to have it taxed as an S or C Corp.

Depending on the status you choose, your state tax treatment will be different too...

 Which state are you in?