Posted by Jimmy on November 10, 2007 at 05:05:28:
if an individual or an entity does business in its own name–there’s no need for any special filings.
but when an individual or an entity does business in a another name, many towns and cities (or counties) require a DBA (doing business as) to be filed. in California, thay are known as FBNS’s.
the rules will differ from place to place.
and JWS Real Estate would be required to have a DBA on record. in my opinion, anyway.
Real Estate Business Name - Posted by Daniel Ritter
Posted by Daniel Ritter on November 09, 2007 at 10:07:27:
I understand that you do not need a business name registered in your state if the name of the business is the same as your name such as John Smith Company if your name is John Smith and you are the sole owner. Is this also true if you wanted to use your initials as the company name? For instance Could John William Smith name his real estate business JWS Real Estate and not have to register it with the state?
Re: Real Estate Business Name - Posted by Sailor
Posted by Sailor on November 10, 2007 at 16:29:43:
In my experience, a DBA is registered w/the county. It’s never taken me more than 5 minutes, & my most recent fee was $15. A DBA is necessary for a biz banking.
Tye
Re: Real Estate Business Name - Posted by John Merchant
Posted by John Merchant on November 10, 2007 at 11:27:31:
Registering a DBA is usually pretty cheap and simple to do in most states.
And before a business could sue in that name, or effectively defend itself if sued, it would need to do that registration as per local law.
The first thing a defense lawyer does when his client is sued is look to see who the plaintiff is…and if it’s an LLC or DBA or Corp he’s going to check the state records pretty carefully to see if that bus. entity has filed all docs required of it and has valid legal standing.
If it doesn’t have it gives him lots of advantage in court and he can maybe completely block the lawsuit if that business hasn’t done what that state requires.