New Member - Morgantown West Virginia Area

[Ryan Tyree]

I am very much new to real estate investing. I have a ton of questions and haven't found google to be of very much use outside of pointing me to these forums.  I have been browsing the posts and listening to the podcasts for a few weeks now.  I still have a ton of questions.

I live in Morgantown WV.  I am a 2006 graduate of WVU as well is my wife.  I am an engineer by trade and she is a pharmacist.  Our goal with real estate investing is to build enough passive income to allow her to reduce her hours to the point where she can eventually quit.  We have an 18 month old at home and he is the joy of our lives.  We are looking forward to #2 and would love for her to be able to spend more time with them.

Our target market is student housing.  WVU has close to 30k students with more than half of them living in off campus housing.  There are several big apartment complexes in the area as well as numerous single and multi family units.  A quick search on realtor.com and I turned up 10+ deals that are worth looking into.  Some of which already have tenants.  My wife and I are targeting single family homes with multiple bedrooms along with multi family units with up to 4 units per building.

Several questions that I have (there will definitely be more) are as follows:

- I've been told before that real estate taxes double when a property is declared a rental. I don't know if this is a WV law or federal. I'm having trouble even confirming that truth of this statement via google. If true, when I am looking at an MLS of a current rental, is it likely that the last year taxes listed on the MLS are what I would expect to pay as the new owner or should I be doubling this amount? What are my avenues to check up on this? I suspect the sheriff tax office is a good start but I don't know what questions to ask once I get there, or if they will even release that information on a property I do not own.

- I heard in a podcast that there was some sort of 750 hr rule that one needed to meet before depreciation could be considered a write-off.  I'm assuming I will need at least a half dozen or more properties before I can even justify this amount of hours on a tax filing.  Is it a big deal if I am not able to do this for the first few years?  I live in a competitive market so deals will have to be vetted with a fine tooth comb.  I fear that depreciation could make or break the deal.  The podcast went on to talk about showing paper losses but positive income in your bank account.  Can I also write-off these paper losses against my W-2 income?

- Is there a go to website people use for a generic lease that they use and modify to make there own?  Or, do I need to talk to a real estate attorney to draft a grassroots lease that suits me in every way?

- Is there an advantage of using residential mortgages vs commercial mortgages? My wife and I have good credit with scores over 800.  From the podcasts it sounds like we can purchase the first half dozen or so properties with residential loans with only one of us on each note.

- Seems like most folks are using 30 year terms for there deals.  Is there a disadvantage to a shorter term or any reason not to use a 30 yr?  Our yearly W-2 income is ~350k so we don't feel that we need to maximize our monthly net income with each deal that we do.  The engineer in me believes that we should take the shorter term to build equity in the property faster, which can be used in a refinance to purchase additional properties in a few years.  Is there anything wrong with my thought process?

- I would be interested to hear from some folks that have done the student housing thing before.  I feel that the unit will turn over yearly or every other year so that may help for big maintenance items.  I'm hoping that most students that spend the money to go to college will not tear up your property.  Would I be subject to a discrimination lawsuit if I were to ask questions such as what your GPA is and in what major of study?  I feel like you could weed out most of your bad tenants with this approach.  I am also not opposed to renting to not students but felt that students would be easier to obtain.

Any other knowledge that you are willing to share is greatly appreciated.  My wife and I are going to be looking at some properties over the next few weeks/months.  I'm ready to jump in with both feet, she is a little slower to the starting line.  I'm hoping we can both get on the same page and close on our first property by Christmas.

Take care,

~Ryan