Hello my friends. Welcome to another episode of Ask Marco on the Passive Real Estate Investing show. Well, I have a question today from, I guess a new real estate investor, and it is a common question I get about asset protection and there just seems to be a lot of confusion about this subject or just a lack of information out there. I've done a lot of podcast episodes about it. And so I think this is just a good and timely question and it seems to be evergreen. So let's hit it.

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Nick writes in, he says, hi, Marco. I've been listening to your podcast and speaking with your team. I'm very close to pulling the trigger on my first investment property in Indianapolis. Nick, congratulations. It's the first one's always the hardest and the most exciting. I listened to the podcast from December of 23, I guess that's December 23rd, about asset protection.

And my question is this, is it worth it for me to get the asset protection set up prior to getting my first property, or am I better off to just wait until I have a few properties? I will be setting up an LLC for the first property and we'll transfer title after closing. But I am more curious about the series LLC that was discussed in that podcast. I would like to get this right out of the gate, but I also don't want to make this complicated until I can get my feet wet. With all this, my goal is to have at least two to three properties by the end of the year. Thank you, Nick. Nick, congratulations. And I'm glad you're thinking about this in terms of goals and objectives, not just the fact that you got your first property. So congratulations. Well, now that I have read your question to December of 23, I assuming means 2023, so December of 2023.

Okay, got it. Well, here's my response. Nick, don't complicate this question. It is a common question, and I get it quite often. The short, simple answer is this. You can set up your asset protection anytime before or after because it's simply a matter of transferring title out of your personal name when you close on the property and into the entity that you're using for asset protection purposes. Now, I'm assuming you're financing the property because if you're not using financing, you could close property in the name of an LLC or anything you want. There's no lender involved. It's the lender that wants you to close in your name personally, and then you have certain rights after the fact as far as whether you can transfer the title or not. Most lenders don't want you to and don't allow you to. The only exception to, to that by law is transferring it into a trust.

You can transfer any of your personal assets, including property into a trust, and that should not affect your mortgage loan or, you know, impact the lender in any way. They're, they're not gonna be suspicious or it won't raise red flag. It's not supposed to. And that's the Garn-St. Germaine Act in case you're wondering. Now having said that, you can set up your asset protection anytime you like. Most investors like to have that set up beforehand just for the sake of having it done all at the same time and getting it off your plate. But there's nothing wrong with having it set up beforehand and then providing that information to the title company before you close so they can transfer the title into your LLC after you close on the purchase. But that happens the same day, and normally it happens minutes after you close escrow on the purchase itself.

So once all the docs are signed, you're officially closed, you've taken title and the deal is done, and then five minutes later, the title company can create a, a deed of some kind to transfer the title from you to your new LLC or whatever it may be. Now, having said that, I don't know a lot about the,