Meeting with Real Estate Attorney

After meeting with Jim Harrington of  NPH Lawyers in Lowell, MA,  My venture idea for my For Profit/ Non-profit Property Management company became a little more rigid. I really need to focus on the services that I would like my corporation to offer, that stands out from the existing competitors out there. For my  original venture idea i wanted to incorporate the idea of being able to help those who couldn't afford to  repair their properties with funding to put them in a better place financially and making their home more appealing for future tenants, along with being able to manage their properties once they were able to maximize their income. Here are some of the key things that Attorney Jim Harrington mentioned to me, after briefly pitching my idea.

•  no ownership of assets
• solely charitable purposes
• IRS sets limitation on Director income
• Two separate entities ( cannot be both profit and non-profit)
• Tax exempt status
• Housing court representation by attorney's only no longer property managers alone
• For Profit only ( with ability to a offer a resource to clients to obtain their own funding for repairs) 

Some of my original stipulations were contingent upon my clients agreeing  to hire us to manage their property upon us providing funding to repair their home, but whatever money they would pay for our services would be re-invested into the non-profit portion of my corporation. I was told that because I am a non-profit filing an exemption from taxes, I would not be able to require any clients to hire us after providing "charitable" funding for charitable purposes to in turn make a profit, even if it were to be re-invested into the company. This particular service is what I felt would separate my business from the several other property management companies out there. There are many restrictions involved with starting up as a non-profit that would prevent me from having total control over how I would like my business run and how to distribute the assets. Also, I would need to literally have two separate property management companies and NOT one company with two different sectors and tax filing status. 

I was able to get some insight on what would be necessary to start up as a For Profit and lean more on how I can tailor some of the very same concepts, while being competitive.

Please stay tuned for future Blog  posts, as I explain how I will transition my idea from a For-Profit/ Non-profit venture to now a For-Profit, focusing more on the services and consumers. I will incorporate much of the feedback I was able to obtain from speaking to Attorney Harrington into my future ideas going forward.