Posted by camgere on July 11, 2008 at 09:13:14:
google “shelf corporation”
Need to buy a older corp - Posted by Brian_Wa
Posted by Brian_Wa on July 11, 2008 at 07:47:50:
I need to buy an S-corp that is older than 2 years. Does anyone know of where I can go to buy it and also normally how much it would cost to buy such an entity?
Thanks,
Brian
Have You Considered eBay? - Posted by rae mitchell
Posted by rae mitchell on July 19, 2008 at 10:36:21:
While it might not get you exactly what you need, you may find someone selling something else and then ask them a question and be able to find what you need privately through the “ask seller a question” section.
Search for “Nevada Corporation” on eBay. Some of those guys consistently selling there trade in more than just Nevada corps.
I understand that sometimes an older corp is needed for reasons other than credit and so it has to be an older corporation. But consider this: you need to make sure that whatever you buy is clean. It would really suck to buy what you thought was a debt-free corporation, only to have someone coming after you as single shareholder of a corporation you just bought for some million dollar liability the seller “forgot” to tell you about!
And here’s another thing: make sure you have an iron-clad way of doing your due diligence and that you don’t miss anything.
Another possibility (at least in Nevada) is to contact the secretary of state’s website. Sometimes people don’t keep their corporation up to date…don’t pay the fees every year. If you find one that’s “revoked” you might want to contact the listed officers of the corporation and see if you can negotiate a reasonable price to buy it from them for. It will most likely end up cheaper than buying from one of the guys selling shelf corporations “to the public”. Why? Because! Where do you think they GET some of those older corporations! By buying out (cheaply) some of their clients who have filed corps and then done nothing with them. They get them cheaply, then mark them up and sell them for big $$$. And a revoked corporation or other entity can be reinstated by paying the proper fees and filing the necessary docs with the SecOfState’s office…they will tell you how much it costs.
Re: Need to buy a older corp - Posted by StevenS(CPA)
Posted by StevenS(CPA) on July 18, 2008 at 10:49:03:
I agree with what most people have said here. Plus there are some other things you may want to consider.
One - if D&B sees that a new owner has taken over a corporation they may wipe the old information from the credit file and mark it as a purchased corporation which would make it like a new corporation anyway.
And even if you can escape that there is the problem of registering with your sec of state which could also re-age your corporation.
I would focus on bringing up your business credit score to 75 or 80 rather than buying an aged corporation. A corporation with a good score can do just as much as an aged corporation with no credit.
If you want a lot more information on this I would go to creditboards.com
Good luck
Re: Need to buy a older corp - Posted by JT-IN
Posted by JT-IN on July 13, 2008 at 10:18:39:
4K to 5K with no credit history…
30k and up with credit line or credit card…
I understand the concept of having a corp with a previously established birthdate… older than 2 yrs… but I fail to see that these shelf corps have the value that equals the selling price. Any lender doing reasonable due diligence frankly isn’t going to buy the age of the corp with no finacials and tax returns, as having much value. Especially when they do a SOS search and ascertain that the Statutory Agent and Corporate Officers have all changed recently. Quite another thing if it was a legitimate business with cashflow and all, but we are talking purchasing a file folder with a certificate of existence, and nothing else.
But these corps are hawked and sold so no doubt a market… Not sure that I agree that the value is really evident.
JT-IN
Re: Need to buy a older corp - Posted by Mike (Seattle Wa)
Posted by Mike (Seattle Wa) on July 11, 2008 at 08:32:04:
Buying an older corp won’t really get you anything - you know this right? If you’re doing this for biz credit reasons, they will still want to see 2-3 years of tax returns along with a personal balance sheet. All buying an older corp will do is get you passed the first question in the process.
Re: Need to buy a older corp - Posted by Brian_Wa
Posted by Brian_Wa on July 11, 2008 at 08:35:41:
I just need to get past the first question then.
Brian