Posted by KenS (WV) on January 06, 2003 at 09:01:28:
Tony,
You are right. In WV there are up to 5 licenses you must get to be a licensed dealer. There are also 3 different recovery fund fees on top of the insurance and bonding you must get for license #3. In addition, you are required to maintain a separate office with a display lot and have posted business hours. The cost of entry is steep to be legal, but as you say, it is paid for after the first couple of good deals.
Once you have all of this then you are a dealer and pay no taxes on title tranfers. The buyer pays 3% tax to you and a $10 title fee.
Question about title work at the DMV - Posted by Rick Shepard
Posted by Rick Shepard on January 03, 2003 at 06:20:55:
Group,
When I have a buyer lined up for a home I’m purchasing is it possible to transfer the title between the two parties with my company as first lien holder on the title? Would this be an effective way to keep a low profile?
Re: Question about title work at the DMV - Posted by Tony-VA
Posted by Tony-VA on January 03, 2003 at 07:49:14:
What you are describing is considered “jumping title” and is likely to be illegal. Because you are not really lending the money on the home but rather buying it at one price and selling it at another, the state wants it’s taxes (once when you buy and again when you sell). Certainly this may vary by state.
You will still keep a low profile. Your name is not usually on the title long. You don’t want to keep too low of a profile, you want people to know that you buy and sell mobile homes.
Asset protection is a part of good business but I don’t think jumping title to do so is good business. Mobile homes are not highly valued by creditors. You will be turning that home into a mobile home promisory note quickly. The note is valued even less by creditors.
Re: Question about title work at the DMV - Posted by Tony-VA
Posted by Tony-VA on January 03, 2003 at 21:09:10:
You bring up a good point in that I was assuming (we all know what that can lead to) that this poster was Not a licensed dealer.
A dealer may re-assign the title without paying the tax (at least in VA). But as a dealer, I had paid the recovery fee (kind of like a bond), the license fee and the salesman license fee plus jumped through all the hoops in order to become a dealer so as to be able to re-assign the title.
Don’t get me wrong, in VA, the license was quickly paid for in a few deals simply through the tax savings. I don’t know this is the case everywhere however.
Because the poster did not elude to the license issues, I assumed…