The JournalCommerce
Can a Foreigner Buy US Real Estate Through an LLC, One Per Property?
By Andres Platts · August 19, 2026 · 4 min read
Quick answer
Yes. There is no citizenship requirement to own US property, and holding each property in its own LLC is common practice for containing liability.
Yes. There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own property in the United States, and holding each property inside its own LLC is a well-established structure. What it buys you is containment: a claim arising at one property does not reach the others.
The question worth asking is not whether you may do it, but at what point the structure earns the cost of maintaining it.
Why One LLC Per Property Rather Than One for All of Them?
Because liability follows the asset. If a single LLC holds four properties and something happens at one of them, every asset inside that entity is exposed to the claim. Separating them means an incident at one address is contained to the entity that owns that address. Lenders and insurers are also familiar with the arrangement, so it rarely complicates a transaction the way owners expect.
What Does Each Additional Entity Actually Cost?
Each LLC is its own small administrative unit: its own formation, its own registered agent, its own annual state filing, its own books, and in most cases its own bank account. That is the real trade-off. Two or three properties usually justify separation comfortably. A single modest property often does not, and owners are sometimes sold a structure more elaborate than their position warrants.
Separate entities contain liability between properties, but each one carries its own registered agent, annual filing, and bookkeeping. The structure should follow the size of the portfolio, not the other way round.
If a single LLC holds four properties and something happens at one of them, every asset inside that entity is exposed to the claim.
Does Owning Through an LLC Change What I Owe in Tax?
Rental income from US property is US-source income and is taxed accordingly whether you hold the property personally or through an entity. An LLC is not a shelter from that. What the structure changes is liability, privacy at the county record level, and how cleanly the asset can later be transferred or brought into a succession plan. Treat the tax question and the ownership-structure question as separate; conflating them is how owners end up disappointed with a structure that was never designed to do what they hoped.
The flexible structure most founders choose, set up for your state.
What Is FIRPTA, and Why Does It Matter Before I Buy?
FIRPTA governs withholding when a foreign person sells US real property, and a substantial percentage of the gross sale price can be withheld at closing rather than calculated on your actual gain. It is worth understanding at purchase rather than at sale, because how the property is held and titled affects how that withholding is applied and how efficiently it is later reconciled. It is the single most common unpleasant surprise for foreign owners at exit.
Which State Should the LLC Be Formed In?
Ordinarily the state where the property sits. Real property is governed by the law of its location, so forming in a different state generally means registering as a foreign entity in the property's state anyway, which adds a second set of filings without removing the first. The formation-state optimisation that makes sense for an online business rarely transfers to real estate.
Does the Structure Need to Change for Succession?
It often should. US property held directly by a non-resident can raise estate exposure that owners are unaware of until the worst possible moment, and the entity layer above the property is where that is usually addressed. If you expect the asset to pass to the next generation, that consideration belongs in the design from the beginning rather than being retrofitted later, when transferring the asset itself may carry its own cost.
How Prodezk Handles This
We form and maintain the entities, keep each one's filings and registered agent current so the separation holds up in practice rather than only on paper, and coordinate the structure with the tax and succession picture before the purchase rather than after it. Speak with an advisor about how your portfolio should be held.
A firm or advisor? Refer clients and build alongside Prodezk.
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