Posted by Laure on July 01, 2000 at 11:22:03:
Bill offers some real good asset Protection courses. IT’s worth the money. Also, you can hire him directly to just set it up for you. That’s what I did. He is setting up my LLC for me. I just don’t want to screw it up. It’s not that expensive either. Check it out.
LLC is for rentals. C corp is for flipping, rehabs, etc.
Laure 
Protecting your assets - Posted by Hope
Posted by Hope on July 01, 2000 at 09:32:41:
We own some single family homes that are in my name and my spouse. I was thinking that if I ever get sued or something, all our homes could be taken from us. Is there anyway that I could protect myself legally from this, and still keep the benefits that I derive from owning these homes jointly(Tax benefits) Any info would be appreciated. TIA
Re: Protecting your assets - Posted by dan
Posted by dan on July 03, 2000 at 23:33:55:
INSURANCE! Depending on how much equity you have to protect in these properties, I would buy more insurance. Make sure you have enough insurance for your car and enough liability insurance for each property and if you have a substantial net worth, you can get an unbrella policy that would kick in after other insurance was used up (all the other insurance has to be at maximum coverage).
Jim Piper has excellent advise. - Posted by Soraya(SanDiego)
Posted by Soraya(SanDiego) on July 03, 2000 at 24:00:39:
I think if you were to verify the advice that Jim Piper gave you with Bill Bronchick, the attorney at www.legalwiz.com, ,I think you will find that Bronchick would concur with Piper.
Soraya
Re: Protecting your assets - Posted by JPiper
Posted by JPiper on July 01, 2000 at 18:31:17:
A couple of possibilities would be the formation of a family limited partnership, or the formation of one or more LLC?s (depending on the number and value of your properties.)
The poster below mentioned land ?contracts??..which I presume meant land ?trusts?. The land trust might serve to hide ownership, but in my opinion for asset protection should be coupled with an LLC or other entity to hold the beneficial interest.
If you formed an LLC with your spouse you might be able to form a single-member LLC, which for tax purposes serves as a ?flow-through? entity to your individual joint return. If this were coupled with a land trust?both vehicles flow through income to your personal return. However some states don?t permit single-member LLC?s. If this is the case you would need to file a partnership return, no particular problem but one additional layer of cost and/or effort.
You might want to take a look at some of Bronchick?s articles here on the site?.he discusses some of the advantages of LLC?s.
JPiper
Re: Protecting your assets - Posted by Ken (ILL)
Posted by Ken (ILL) on July 01, 2000 at 09:41:35:
First of all, put each property in it’s own land contract…IMMEDIATELY! If one of the houses gets sued, only that land contract (which now owns the property)is affected, and all of the rest can’t get touched. Then, if you are holding on to these properties, you may want to hold them in a corporation. “C”, “S”, “Limited Partnership” or LLC. Investigate each and see what the benefits are for you. Please move quickly…law suits are plentiful out there! Ken
Re: Protecting your assets…Should a structure be formed before Buying first property? - Posted by Rocka Fella
Posted by Rocka Fella on July 03, 2000 at 15:29:16:
Should some type of legal structure…LLC…Corp etc. be formed before closing on a property? I would think getting property removed from personal holding into an LLC etc. would be costly.
Re: Protecting your assets - Posted by Bert G
Posted by Bert G on July 01, 2000 at 11:23:45:
I’m sure Ken meant to say “Land Trust”. A land contract is a type of installment sale. A Land Trust is where someone else (trustee) holds tilte for the benefit of another (beneficiary).
I strongly recommend, Hope, that you get ahold of Bill Bronchick’s asset protection course, available on this site:
http://www.creonline.com/c-152.html
Bert G ND
Re: Protecting your assets - Posted by Benjamin
Posted by Benjamin on July 01, 2000 at 10:02:23:
Ken,
When you say “put each property in it’s own land contract”, do you mean (or is that the same thing) as a land trust? I know “land contract” to be a financial arrangement - not a legal protection arrangement. Is there a broader definition?
Also, in your experience (or anyone’s) is an LLC better than a C corp for holding property long term?
Re: Protecting your assets…Should a structure be formed before Buying first property? - Posted by JPiper
Posted by JPiper on July 05, 2000 at 11:10:22:
It’s not particularly costly…just the cost of a deed.
However, if you deed to yourself, then deed to some other entity later, you do leave some tracks. In light of that it’s probably better to have your asset protection plan in place when you take title, but of course for existing holdings you have to do what you have to do.
JPiper