DJ,
I just went through this a year ago, and can tell , in my case, it is without a doubt, a BAD idea
. Since getting it, my safe has expanded to it's limits, much to the chagrin of my wife.
In all honesty, it has worked out great for me. I had intended to get it for more my use than anything, but BATFE
strongly disagrees with this philosophy. They will not allow a 01 FFL for personal use, it must be used to conduct business. They don't require a store front, but do require you have hours and receive customers. This was a problem for me, originally, in that I didn't have a commercial occupancy permit, but a home occupancy waiver (basically a home based business). My local government allows this, but one of the conditions is that I can't have customers coming to my house. My investigator said this wasn't acceptable, so I appealed this condition, and was given a waiver of it.
In my testimony, and my true intentions, was to do 2-4 transfers a month, at most. I actually average 10 a month. I charge $20.00 a transfer, and am on the low side, compared to local store fronts. But, in fairness, there $$$ is made selling guns, not transferring someone else's sale. I have paid for my license 5X over in the first year, just on transfers. The occasional sale and the discounted guns for myself is just icing. BW is right on a few things, some distributors won't sell to you without a storefront, but enough will, it is not a problem. My investigator discouraged the computer program bound book, as my inventory was insufficient to warrant it. I found a PDF version of a bound book on the internet, and just print them off as needed and hand write the transfer, and put it into a binder when complete. My investigator's interview was more making sure I knew how to fill out paperwork than anything. You have to be, at least a little, anal retentive with your paperwork, that is the fastest way to get your butt in a wringer, other than out & out fraud.
IMHO, you don't need the FFL kits out there. I didn't use one, and with the exception of the customer thing, it went fine. My problem was local, not BATFE. It took me about 7 months to get it, but 3 of those was hearing/etc locally. If you get it in your name, you will need pictures and fingerprints,if you get it in a corp name, you won't. But keep in mind if it is a corp name, you will need to do a 4473 on transfers to you personally, and there might be some local zoning issues.
The one bit of advice I can give you is to check and double check your paperwork. Whether it is your application, or your bound book. If you have any questions, just ask, I'll try and answer them. Good luck!
Brian
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