William V. Hovey published his regular column in Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly: Choosing the Best Real Estate Holding Entity.
He discussed the entities in this order:
- Individual
- Tenants in Common
- Joint Tenants
- Tenants by the Entirety
- Trust – Standard with named beneficiaries
- Nominee Trust
- Massachusetts Business Trust
- Corporation (C corp)
- Corporation (S corp)
- General partnership
- Limited partnership
- Joint venture
- Limited liability partnership
- Limited liability company
This is a good outline of the issues. But I think Mr. Hovey is little off base on a few points.
First, a joint venture is not an holding entity and has no place in the list. Several of the other types are not entities, but they at least ownership choices.
Second, he states that limited partnerships are “likely to be replaced by LLCs and LLPs.” I hate to break it to Mr. Hovey, but LLCs replaced limited partnerships about a decade ago. I rarely see LLPs used for real estate ownership in Massachusetts.
That is a good outline of issues… My buddy bought a house with his THEN girlfriend and is dealing with his declaration of Joint Tenants versus Tenants in Commmon right now.
Mark -
Sorry to hear about your buddy. Another issue to think about is how to deal with the end of the ownership of the real estate.