advantages of an LLC condo purchase?

Privacy. No tax benefits.

LLC are used for investment purposes and isolating one specific property's potential liabilities from other asserts owned by an individual. The LLC's taxes are rolled up to the individual returns (after a P&L that is specific for the LLC)

Famous people that want to advertise to the entire world that they just bought. Remember Bjork's recent purchase in Brooklyn Heights and Norah Jones wanting to do renovations in Cobble Hill? They should have bought with LLCs I think.

^don't want to

No recourse in the event of a mortgage default?

Riversider,
Exactly why i asked if these are cash purchases. Can you get a mortgage as an LLC?

@ Moxieland: You can get get a mortgage on an LLC. Lots of investors were getting 90% mortgages during the boom and purchased using LLCs.

http://www.lawproblems.com/Creating_LLC_To_Buy_Rental.htm
A: A limited liability company (LLC) is a form of organization for an entity similar to other corporate entities. The main purpose of an LLC is to insulate its owners from personal liability should something happen at one of the properties owned by the LLC. An LLC can be used to own any type of property or even to run a business.

You have found out what many real estate investors have discovered: Owning property in an LLC can be expensive, particularly when residential lenders are willing to lend money at lower rates and with lower down payments as opposed to commercial lenders. Why wouldn’t you want to get the lowest rate and terms possible, even if it means using your own name?

You can’t transfer title from your name to an LLC at the closing of your purchase. The lender requires you to take title of the property in your name. After the closing you’ll have two choices.

One possibility is to keep the properties in your own name and make sure you have sufficient insurance to cover yourself in case anything goes wrong with them.

The second option is to transfer title of the properties from your name to the LLC which you control. Transferring the title is easy. You would sign a quitclaim deed from yourself to your new entity. You would also want to coordinate the recording of the deed with the title company and have them issue the new title insurance policy in the name of the LLC. You don’t want to transfer title to the LLC and later find out that there is a title problem with the property and not have title insurance coverage for your issue.

If you do transfer title, you’ll end up with one major problem -- your lender expects you to own these properties in your own name. The transfer of title from your name to the LLC would allow the lender to call the loan. Most loans have a clause that states that upon the sale or transfer of title of the property, the lender has a right to demand repayment in full of the loan.

Some lenders may allow the transfer of title, but most of the time residential lenders will tell a homeowner that the title must remain in the name of the original buyer, subject to certain transfers between spouses, in case of death, and for estate planning purposes.

By the way, did the lender ask whether you would be living in either of these properties as your primary residence or second home. If you applied for these residential loans and represented that they were for your own use and you intended to rent them, you are violating the terms of the loans that were given to you.

In some cases, the misrepresentation has serious legal consequences in addition to allowing the lender to demand the immediate repayment of the loan.

As far as transferring the properties to your LLC, only you can decide whether the transfer is worth it and whether to take the risk with your lender.

On the issue of whether the properties were represented to the lender as being for your own use, frequently real estate investors take advantage of a lender’s excellent terms for financing primary and secondary residences that are intended to be owner occupied but have no intent on living in these properties.

These misrepresentations distort the marketplace and are in most cases illegal.

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/wiki/Real_Estate_LLC_.asp
Keep in mind that any loan done by an LLC will be treated as a "non-owner occupied transaction," (NOO) unless bulletproof documentation is provided that all members of the LLC have lived together in the past and are going to continue to live together in the future. Again, you're just as well off to do it as individuals in that case. At any rate, lenders consider NOO transactions to be more risky (because they are in general), and so all but one investor requires a down payment, and the interest rates are higher.

Are there any benefits for interest deduction? Like if you max out the $1MM mortgage interest principal usable for deduction on one property but have a second property in an LLC can you get an additional interest deduction?