Newbie from CO, KS, MO w/ Flooring Background

[Chris Steil]

Hello All,

My name is Chris Steil and my wife and I currently live in Colorado Springs, CO. Although we travel quite a bit to Kansas City and some surrounding areas in KS and MO. We are getting into the process of obtaining a rental property this summer and looking for advice as well as tax tips. 

I currently sell custom Luxury Tile Plank or Luxury Tile Flooring to commercial properties and multi-family units. My partner and I get the flooring direct, although we do sell to wholesalers and retail stores. Right now we are only selling containers and 1/2 containers for large projects. So if you have a big project, let me know. 

Also, we are getting into selling LED lights to commercial and multi-family units. This drastically reduces energy cost and looks good. 

So, since we have been working with commercial and multi-family properties on meeting their flooring and lighting needs. I thought, why shouldn't my wife and I get in on the fun. Our goal is by this summer to have something lined up in either CO, KS, MO or PA. 

I look forward to meeting new people and being a part of the BP community. 

Thanks,

Chris

[Becky Reid]

Welcome @Chris Steil!  

Some of the basis...

There are some great tax advantages to buy and hold properties! You can deduct mortgage interest, real estate taxes (unless you pay mortgage points. You might have to amortize them over the term of loan). You can write off operating expenses. My favorite is you can claim depreciation, even if your property is appreciating.  This can really bring down the amount of tax you have to pay on your rental income. With all these things you might even be able to claim a loss (even though in "real life" you did not have a loss). Remember that you don't have to pay tax on appreciation until you sell.  However, if you did something like a 1031 exchange you can defer taxes...you could keep doing 1031 exchanges your whole life to avoid those taxes, I believe.