After searching the market for the perfect piece of real estate, you have found property that will satisfy your needs and give you future opportunities. It is now time to be concerned about protecting yourself from the risks involved in property ownership. One way to...
You’ve set up your LLC. Now it’s time to make money, and flow the profits into your bank account. It's time to think about how you will be distributing LLC Money between bank accounts. In the example we’ll use in this article, you have transferred title in a real...
You can’t do a criminal background check on a tenant! You must rent out your property or pay a fine! You must report all of your company’s beneficial owners! Do these exclamations ring of an authoritarian bureaucracy? That bell is ringing louder in the last year as...
There’s a lot of talk about Series LLCs. More and more people are wondering if they’re a smart idea. The short answer is - they aren’t. They haven’t been tested, giving them limited applications if they have any at all. The series LLC is different from a traditional...
Many people use joint ownership (the holding of title by two or more people), without really thinking about it. It is often used as a substitute for estate planning because it is cheaper, which is why some call it the "poor man’s will". It may seem like a simple and...
Beware of Purchasing Real Estate with Unpaid Liens on It Can the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) collect a prior owner’s delinquent federal income taxes from the subsequent purchaser of real property? Yes. In Shirehampton Drive Trust v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.,...
Asset protection planning defends your assets from future creditors, divorce, lawsuits or judgments. How can you best plan to protect your personal and business assets? Here are some guidelines to implement strong asset protection. Plan Your Asset Protection Strategy...
If you own a rental property, are scammers misusing your assets? If you are trying to rent, are you aware of the latest scams? According to data reported by Forbes in July 2018, U.S. renters lost a staggering $5.2 million to rental scams. And an Apartment List...
By Theodore Sutton Binding arbitration is becoming a popular method to resolve disputes in real estate transactions. Arbitration provides certain advantages that courts do not. For instance, arbitrations are private, they resolve disputes in a more timely and...
Starting your business from scratch is a big deal. There are a million details to take care of, and the list of demands can seem endless. Small business owners have to hire employees, worry about taxes, and find ways to maximize profits while keeping costs as low as...
Have you heard that land trusts provide asset protection? Do you believe it? Applicable Law Two cases from Illinois concluded that, in a land trust, although the legal and equitable title lies with the trustee, most of the usual attributes of real property ownership...
Your Home is No Longer a Full Service Tax Deducting ATM Have you ever tapped the equity in your home to pay for a new car or a college tuition? With a HELOC, also known as a home equity loan or line of credit, you could do so. Better yet, you could deduct the interest...
An Alaska Supreme Court Rules on Alaska Domestic Asset Protection Trusts Created to Protect Assets from a Montana Lawsuit Court Case: Toni 1 Trust, by Tangwall v. Wacker 2018 WL 1125033 For fraudulent conveyances, Can one state assert exclusive jurisdiction over...
When purchasing real estate, it's critical to protect ourselves and our possessions from lawsuits. We live in the most sue-happy society, in one of the most litigious times, and you need to protect yourself. One way to help prevent people from obtaining all your...
Owners of LLCs Holding California Real Estate, Beware! The State of California is at it again. A recent case decided by the California Supreme Court allows cities to asses Documentary Transfer Taxes like never before. When property is transferred by a deed, counties...
Are you a real estate professional? Do you work over 750 hours a year on real estate activities and are these annual hours over half the time you work in total? If so, you can offset real estate losses against your ordinary, taxable income. If one spouse is a doctor...
IRA (Individual Retirement Account) can provide greater flexibility in investing than a 401(k), but it can also be surprisingly easy to jeopardize your nest egg if you’re not careful to follow the letter of the law. When you have money in your IRA (Individual...
Is anyone protected from a cyber security breach? And what steps can you take to protect yourself? Universities, retailers and even the government have all been exposed to cyber thieves. The government’s office of Personal Management lost over 5 million fingerprint...
We’ve all heard the expression, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.” In real estate, this saying certainly holds true. It’s essential that you develop a workable plan and start building a team of experts before you get started, so that you start off on the path to...
I’m not suggesting that you need to know everything. You don’t. You’ll continue to learn as you go. But you must educate yourself in the basics to get started on the right foot. A little education goes a long way in accomplishing four essential goals: 1. Demystify...
The biggest tax challenge for real estate investors are the passive loss rules. Under these rules, passive losses can only be used to offset passive income. A business activity is passive if the owner does not spend much time (typically less than 500 hours per year)...