All Forum Posts by: Raul Salmeron

Freedom Soft is a good software to have for pulling lists.

For more targeted lists you can create and purchase a list on www.listsource.com

Here is the long answer, as to why you should have your funds in a separate account (and hire a lawyer, create an operating agreement, etc.)

First of all, you should get a lawyer to setup an LLC for you. They can answer questions like this and if you have a friend who does corporate legal work they can probably set it up for you for not that much money. They can also help you with an operating agreement, which is the heart and sole of a properly incorporated LLC.

As I see it, the main advantage of an LLC is to provide personal legal protection from liability that happens inside the corporation. So, for example, someone slips and falls at one of your rental houses, breaks their neck, and sues you for $100 million. In this scenario, you will sleep much better at night knowing that the maximum liability you have is the assets inside the company (and not all of your personal assets).

Single member LLC's don't provide much protection the other way around, however. For example, let's say I rack up $1 million in personal debt, and want to use the LLC to protect my real estate assets from my creditors. In most cases, it will be trivial for the creditor to get a charging order against the LLC and take your assets anyway.

So if we agree that the main advantage is personal liability protection, then you should make sure to maintain proper corporate form (see here: http://www.insidecounsel.com/2012/01/11/regulatory...).

You will notice that one of the bullet points in maintaining proper corporate form is:

Maintain separate accounting records and bank accounts, and avoid comingling funds with its owner

For this reason, it is always good to have complete asset separation between your personal and business funds. If a court is deciding whether your business and personal assets are effectively the same, it will be much easier to conclude they are not if they aren't all going in and out of the same bank account.

 The 2nd option doesn't provide asset protection and you are commingling  funds...personal and business.  Not a bright idea come tax time.

Joe Villeneuve
REcapSystem
A2REIC

2nd.  The first is just a fancy d.b.a....why bother?

Joe Villeneuve
REcapSystem
A2REIC