Just starting out! Help?!

[Noelle Linn]

My husband and I both had homes when we met, mine paid for and his not. We rented my home and lived in house before moving to DFW area, where we are also renting. We've decided to start real estate investing as a means of building financial freedom, with our two homes (in the Stephenville area) as our first rental properties. It's probably a little unorthodox to be renting ourselves, while owning rental properties.... but that's another story. We are about to apply for an LLC and begin the process of reinvesting the cash flow from both properties.

I have so many questions. However, here are a few. We had both houses rented out at minimal rates (to family) in 2017. However, we don’t currently have a legal business we are operating under. This year we hired managers to deal with placing renters and managing the operations, and will have a business license by the end of the year. How do you recommend approaching this from a tax standpoint.

Also, we don’t know what to do about buying a house up here. We only have so much cash and it seems like it would be better to invest in a market other than where we are. In other words, we can pay money down on a house up here (Mansfield) or put it towards a property that we can rent.

Would anyone have feedback to offer? 

[Paul Allen]

The IRS defines renting to family members below market rental rates as "personal use" of the property. Which means your properties may not have been rental properties (for tax purposes) in 2017. I'd get with a knowledgeable tax professional and go over the details to see how you should file in 2017.

Best of Luck with Your Real Estate Investing!