All Forum Posts by: Will Crocker

@Weston Couch How will that make it different?

@Weston Couch Its irrevocable.

@Weston Couch no but I will ask right now.

Here’s the background:

My parents inherited a property on Cape Cod when my Grandfather died. It is a great property for short term rental. The property is paid off and worth ~600k. The property is in a Life Estate Trust. My sister is the Trustee of the Trust. She has an attorneys office she works with for all issues regarding the Trust.

My question:

When I asked her to check with the attorney to see if he recommends putting it in an LLC he said it's not necessary. The property is already in a Trust and the property is the only thing in that Trust so if someone tries to sue us the only thing they can attach to the lawsuit is the property, they can't also attach the family members to the lawsuit. I believe I've been told many times a Trust does not provide asset protection. There will be no veil to shield the family from being attached to a lawsuit like there would with an LLC. Is this true or did I make that up? There's also some tax issues here. Since the property is part of an estate, the last time it had a stepped up valuation was 1991 at ~$150k. If we move it to an LLC the attorney said we'd have to pay the capital gains on that difference. He is recommending keeping it in the Trust for both those reasons. Will the Trust also provide the same tax benefits of an LLC if we keep it in there instead and just have a large umbrella policy to cover any potential lawsuit?

TLDR

Will a Life Estate Trust provide asset protection against a lawsuit and does it provide the same tax benefits as an LLC?

I am about to close on my first duplex and will be having some expenses coming up to do some minor repairs, however my wife is also about 4 1/2 months pregnant and dont see us traveling much in the next couple years because of that. Should I start collecting travel rewards now and risk them expiring, and wasting opportunities for Southwest’s buddy pass, or wait until we start traveling again to focus on rewards points?

Whats a good book on how to run systems for short term rentals?

And the lease is an agreement. You can’t raise the rent mid lease. Another reason to agree to as much as you can upfront.

RE agents do that all the time. Set the price low to get interest and build a bidding war. It works when you buy a house. Its the same product, whats the reluctancy to do it when renting? I dont see an issue with it. Its standard practice in RE.

Why would you not ask for a tenants highest and best? Ive been asked to do that as a renter in a multiple tenant situation. As a landlord you are trying to get as much money as possible out of your unit. See how much they want to rent the place. Let them know there are multiple qualified people and see if they can pay a little more if they really want it.

If you’re living in one of the units I think you’ll have a hard time renting to students. They are at school away from their parents, they sure as hell don’t want to move into an apartment with their landlord right there telling them no parties. At least I sure wouldn’t have in college.