All Forum Posts by: Dan Schwartz

AI isn't ready?  But H&R Block was "with Watson" at least as way back as 2018! :-)

@Don Konipol I don't think Nathan was suggesting that honesty and ethics will prevent being named in a lawsuit.  

But I do agree that both will go a long way towards a positive personal outcome...as was true in your case above.

@John Underwood you've stumbled across a complaint, not a judgement.

"Upon information and belief".... the court will require "evidence."

You have the case number; what was the outcome of the suit? Was the LLC member held personally liable?

Data point: we have a long-term rental in a popular STR neighborhood listed through Zillow right now.

Every person who writes asking to do some sort of arbitrage is blocked by the Zillow platform.

I don't even have to say "no thank you anymore."  Zillow blocks them automatically.  Not because I asked it to.  It just does.  Which means to me that Zillow is cracking down on people hunting for arbitrage on its platform.

Consider that, and other potential barriers, when assessing your marketing tools.

Put the capital in a low-risk instrument (CD, t-bill) that will preserve as much capital as possible even while making your mandatory (5%?) distributions.  While doing that, rethink how to best invest and deploy your corpus.

I saw this article and thought of your plight.  You could satisfy any mandatory distributions and also keep within your mission by supporting them.  I have no knowledge of their leadership or organization.  Just saw it and came to share it.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/11/26/trojan-shelter-struggles-...

@Becky Hoffman by "re-naming" do you mean changing from "Dewey Cheatem & Howe LLC" to "Cheatem & Howe LLC"? Or do you mean changing ownership interest? Changing ownership interest percentages shouldn't require changing the name of the entity. At least it doesn't in AZ. I'm not familiar with TX law.

@Neera Melwani State Farm offers a policy that may interest you. I don't know if it's available in all 50 states or not. The title I see is Rental Dwelling Policy - Special Form. It requires a 1% or 2% deductible and the house must be in an LLC. Ask an agent.

@Ben Johnson Not enough info here, but based on what you wrote, you have $5,000 in monthly cc interest and probably $3,000+ in principal.  With “very little income” where is this $8k/mo coming from?

Either

1) your startup takes off and you can distribute profit fast enough to pay off your debts, or

2) you find another source of $100,000 a year (which barely even starts to pay down the $300k, but might provide a better chance for a better loan), or

3) you BK and possibly lose the rental houses to creditors (hopefully not, but we don’t know how they are held), or 

4) you sell the houses, take the tax hit, work with the IRS on a payment plan whose interest will be much lower than your CCs, and focus on the startup.  If the startup succeeds you can buy houses again. 

Good luck!

Your $200-300/mo in cash income will be wiped out on your tax returns by the property depreciation.  

You get to keep all of the $200-300/mo cash flow (for now) vs what you would keep by earning $200-300/mo on your W-2 or 1099, both of which will be reduced by taxes owed or paid.

That’s it.  That’s the benefit.  Good luck!