Buying a Brooklyn apartment through an LLC: when it makes sense

Buying an apartment through an LLC is not automatically clever. It pays off in a narrow set of cases and costs money in all the others.

When it works

Portfolios of three units or more, planned resale of the company rather than the property, and foreign owners who want a US entity in the chain. In those cases the transfer-tax economics and the ability to sell membership interests instead of the asset can be decisive.

When it does not

One apartment you intend to live in. You lose the primary-residence exclusion on sale, add accounting and filing costs, and the bank prices a company mortgage differently.

The county clerk does not care

Ownership by a company is recorded exactly like ownership by a person. What changes is the paperwork behind the signature: who signs for the company, and whether the transaction needs member approval as a transfer of a significant asset.

We price both routes before the contract is signed, not after.