Top 5 Reasons Not to Own Real Estate in an S Corporation

Although there are more than 5 reasons to not own real estate in an S Corporation, we’ve included our top five below:

1   The allocation of income and losses and distributions of cash and property must be made in accordance with the percentage of shares owned which means, no special deals are allowed (which would be allowed in LLCs). Any variations from this have to be handled in the form of payroll.

2  Transfers of debt-free appreciated property to an S Corporation are taxable if the contributing shareholder is not in control of the corporation immediately after the transfer. This makes it challenging to set up ownership between a “money” partner and “sweat equity” partner.

3   Borrowing money in the corporation and distributing it to a shareholder is often taxable because of the basis limitations discussed above.  This makes it challenging to cash in on the equity in the property using the BRRR strategy (Rehab Rent Refinance Repeat).

4   Most residential lenders will NOT give a mortgage to an S corporation.  While this can be the same for LLCs , the workarounds for LLCs are not available to S Corps.

5   Distributions of appreciated real estate to the owners from the S Corporation are taxable.  This is true of any distribution and especially important if the owners want to split up.  Liquidating the entire S Corporation that has appreciated assets is a taxable event and so is redeeming a shareholder’s stock with appreciated assets.  This can be extra rough on the owners if there is no distribution of cash to pay the tax.