File the LLC yourself if it will never own anything. Hire me if it will hold your rental building. The Illinois Secretary of State portal takes about 20 minutes. The state filing fee is $150. DIY works fine for a simple single-member LLC with no assets. The decision rule is what the LLC will own. Once the LLC holds a rental building, the filing is the cheap part. Your lender will ask for the operating agreement. A deed must move the building into the LLC. The insurance must follow the deed. DIY breaks at those three steps. My flat fee is $750, and the operating agreement is included.
What Does Filing It Yourself Actually Get You?
Illinois made online formation easy. I give the state credit for that. The DIY route has four steps.
- Search the business database of the Secretary of State. Confirm your name is available.
- Fill out the Articles of Organization on the portal.
- Pay the $150 filing fee. The state approves the filing, and your LLC exists.
- Get the EIN from the IRS website. The EIN is free and takes about ten minutes.
Most people finish in about 20 minutes. You can name yourself as the registered agent at your home address. Then you spend nothing beyond the state fee.
For some people, that is the whole job. Maybe you need a placeholder entity for a side business. Maybe you need a consulting shell. Maybe the LLC will never hold title to anything. Then I have no sales pitch for you. Read my first LLC guide so you know the annual report deadline. The Illinois LLC formation hub walks through every step of the state process for free.
A shell LLC with no assets does not need me. File it yourself and keep your $600. My pitch starts when the LLC must protect a building. At that point, the state filing is the smallest task on the list.
What Does the State Filing Not Do?
The Articles of Organization create the entity. They do not build the structure around the entity. Three gaps matter more than the rest.
No Operating Agreement Comes With It
Illinois does not require an operating agreement by statute. So the portal never asks for one. Most DIY filers never write one. The document still does real work. Banks often request the operating agreement when you open a business account. Lenders ask for the operating agreement at underwriting. A court examines the operating agreement to decide if the LLC is genuinely separate from you. I cover what a real one contains in my operating agreement guide. Statutory defaults you have never read are not asset protection.
Your Property Is Still Deeded to You Personally
This gap surprises people the most. The formation does not move the building into the LLC. Title stays in your personal name. Title moves only when someone drafts, signs, and records a deed to the LLC. My office prepares and records deed transfers into the LLC for $100 per deed plus recording fees. That page also covers the due-on-sale clause review. It covers the transfer-tax exemption paperwork too.
The LLC protects nothing until the property is deeded into it. Sign and record a deed to the LLC. Do not stop at the state filing. An LLC with no deed is a liability wall that was never built.
Nobody Sequences the Insurance
The deed transfer creates one more task. Your property policy names you personally as the insured. Insurance does not follow the property when ownership changes. After the LLC takes title, the policy must be reissued in the LLC's name. Otherwise you pay premiums on coverage that can fail. The insurer can deny the claim because the named insured no longer owns the building. I walk through a $40,000 example of that failure on the transfer page. DIY filers do not skip this step because they are careless. They skip it because no form in the state portal mentions it.
Where Do DIY LLC Owners End Up in My Office?
The most common arrival is the refinance. An owner formed the LLC online a few years ago. The owner collects rent through the LLC bank account. Now the owner wants to refinance the building. The underwriter asks for the operating agreement. There is no operating agreement. Or there is a downloaded template that names a manager who does not exist. The template recites the law of another state. The fix mid-underwriting is a rush job at rush stakes. The fix was avoidable on day one.
The second arrival is worse. The owner gets sued, or a tenant stops paying. We discover the building never went into the LLC at all. The entity has existed for years. But the deed never moved. So the liability wall the owner believed in was never built. Then the owner tries to file the eviction in the LLC's name without a lawyer. The court bounces the case. 705 ILCS 220/1 bars a company from appearing in an Illinois court except through counsel. The Illinois Supreme Court confirmed this rule in Downtown Disposal Services, Inc. v. City of Chicago, 2012 IL 112040. I explain the courtroom rule in my guide to LLC court representation.
"The state does not check whether your LLC is built right. Your lender will."
$750 Flat Fee. Operating Agreement Included. Free Consultation.
Tell me what the LLC will own. I will tell you honestly if you should file it yourself. If the answer is a rental building, I do the whole job. I file the Articles. I draft the operating agreement. I obtain the EIN. I sequence the deed and the insurance so the structure protects you.
All consultations are confidential.
Is LegalZoom the Middle Path?
Sort of. For some filers, a filing service is a rational choice. The service takes the data entry off your plate. The packages run roughly $259 to $500 once the add-ons are in. A registered agent charge then renews every year, forever. But the service hands back the same thing the state portal hands back. You get a filed entity plus a template operating agreement. Nobody reads the template against your property, your lender, or Illinois law. The middle path buys convenience on the part that was already easy. I compare the packages line by line in my LegalZoom alternative comparison.
The True Two-Year Cost for a Rental-Property LLC
Sticker prices hide the two-year math. This table shows the full cost of each route. The state charges a $75 annual report fee each year, so two years adds $150 for everyone.
| Expense | DIY | Filing Service | My Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formation and state fee | $150 | $259 to $500, plus the $150 state fee | $750 flat, state fee included |
| Operating agreement | You draft one, or you skip it. | A generic template. | Included. Drafted for your lender. |
| Deed into the LLC | Not offered. | Not offered. | $100 per deed, plus recording fees |
| Registered agent | You serve, free. | A renewal charge, every year. | Setup included. |
| Annual reports, two years | $150 | $150, plus service fees | $150 |
| Two-year total | $300, building unprotected | $559 to $800 plus renewals, building unprotected | $1,000, deed recorded |
How Do the Two Routes Actually Compare?
This table is honest. It includes the rows where DIY wins. If the table pushes you to DIY, that is a fine outcome. About a third of the people who call me get told exactly that.
| What Matters | File It Yourself | My Office ($750 Flat) |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | ✓ DIY wins. $150 state fee and one evening of your time. | ✗ Costs more. $750 flat, with the $150 state fee included. |
| Speed, for a shell with no assets | ✓ DIY wins. About 20 minutes on the portal. | ✗ No faster. The state processes both filings the same way. |
| Learning your own structure | ✓ DIY wins. You read every screen and own every choice. | ✗ I did the work. You get the explanation. |
| Operating agreement | ✗ Not included. You write it, download a template, or skip it. | ✓ Included. Drafted for your property and your lender. |
| Getting the building into the LLC | ✗ Not included. The deed, and the protection, stay in your name. | ✓ Handled. $100 per deed, drafted and recorded, insurance sequenced. |
| Lender and bank readiness | ✗ Weak. Gaps surface at account opening or mid-underwriting. | ✓ Built in. The documents match what banks ask to see. |
| Someone to call | ✗ A search engine. And an LLC cannot appear in court without counsel. | ✓ Me. A direct line to the attorney who built the structure. |
What Does the $750 Include?
The $750 flat fee covers the complete formation. It is one price, not a base rate with add-ons. There is no upsell call afterward. The fee covers five things.
- I draft and file the Articles of Organization.
- The $150 state filing fee is included.
- I draft the operating agreement for your property and your lender.
- I obtain the FEIN.
- I set up the registered agent.
Two related services are priced separately, because not every client needs them. A deed transfer for a building you already own is $100 per deed plus recording fees. A Series LLC is $1,050, and that price includes the $400 state filing fee. A Series LLC builds liability walls between several rentals. My Series LLC vs. S-Corp comparison covers when that structure earns its cost. Ongoing, the state charges a $75 annual report fee each year. My office files the annual report for $200 flat. Or my office handles compliance plus registered agent service for $149 per year.
The fee also buys continuity. The attorney who forms your LLC runs a landlord practice in nine counties. When a tenant stops paying two years from now, the person you call already knows your structure. That side of the office lives at my Chicago landlord attorney page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Further Reading
Decided the LLC Should Hold Your Building?
Then the filing is the smallest task on the list. $750 flat covers the Articles, the operating agreement, the FEIN, and the state fee. I plan the deed and the insurance sequence from day one.