Should you buy an investment property under a corporation? A lot of real estate investors wonder if they should buy investment properties under their personal name or under a hold corporation. Here are five things to consider when making that decision:

First: Are you buying residential or commercial? Residential is anything that is less than five units: a single family, duplex, triplex, fourplex fall under the residential aspect of real estate investing. Commercial is anything over five units or if you own a mixed used property where there is a storefront and a couple apartments on top.

Second: Mortgage financing. Getting mortgages under personal name is much easier when buying residential investment properties. If you want to put them under a hold corporation, it is much more difficult to get mortgages nowadays compared to five or ten years ago.

Third: How you make your other income whether it's a job or self employment through personal or a hold corporation because there will be a wall between your personal income and the corporation income. Sometimes you might need to move funds back and forth which could have tax implications. It is an important question to discuss with your accountant.

Four: Are you planning to buy two or three properties or do you want to buy 15, 20, 35? That is something to consider because if you're getting into these large numbers, whether it's 15, 20 or more, then having it under a hold corporation makes more sense.

Five: Last but not least is what will you do with these funds? That's something to consider because again, if you need those funds to pay for the kids' universities or pay down your personal mortgage or for other reasons, you would have to consider the line between corporation and personal. This is important to discuss with your accountant.

If you're looking to invest in real estate and not sure whether you should do personal or a hold corporation feel free to reach out. I'd be more than happy to help.

Until next time, happy investing!