All Forum Posts by: Bill B.

Pay it off and then buy a new primary and turn your current home in to a rental. Of if you’re currently renting. Buy a new primary and rent rooms to relatives/friends/co-workers. That way you need 1/2 to 1/3rd the downpayment. And you could buy a second home a year later and still need less cash. 

You’ve heard from several experts I respect so nothing I say below is any reason to believe otherwise. It’s simply a place to start your own research or to give to your attorney if you need to find out if it applies…

https://amihousebuyers.com/selling/disclosure/#:~:text=Key%2....

Do you have to disclose water damage when selling a house?

Yes. In Texas, the TREC Seller's Disclosure
form asks you if you are aware of any previous “Water Penetration” (Section 3) or “Previous Flooding” (Section 5). The TAR Seller's Disclosure form also asks about “Water Penetration,” but gets a bit more specific by asking about previous flooding issues by asking you to disclose “Previous Flooding into the Structures” and “Previous Flooding onto the Property.” Note that water penetration is not limited to flooding from rising water levels on the ground in a weather event. Water penetration can also include roof failures or pipe bursts that allow water to leak into or damage your home.

Either have the repaired area researched by your local expert and accept it. Or use it as a reason to bail if you don’t like it. Good luck. 

Ps. While landlords are often exempt from these disclosures. Texas specifics does NOT exempt landlords, according to this website. 

Offset today’s income with depreciation. Once you run out of depreciation or your income becomes too large. You do a 1031 to a new, larger property with even more depreciation. (Imagine the entire value of your property being just the 20-25% downpayment on a 4-5x larger property and the resulting depreciation.) Just like monopoly. Turning your little green houses in to large red hotels. (Apartment buildings/retail centers/farm land/ etc etc…)

That sucks. Especially if it was already a rental. You weren’t trying to convert an owner occupant to rental. 

Try listing it locally or selling to tenant?  Some rentals just aren’t worth the hassle to hold on to. (Of course every time I think that. The property works flawlessly for a year or two with zero repairs/calls/turnover.)

Get a friend/relative/co-worker to rent a room from you? A permanent fix rather than just a bandaid. 

If your problems were really caused by an unexpected ac failure (can’t believe your realtor didn’t get seller to throw in a home warranty.) and not lifestyle. Then the problem will slowly fix itself even if you do nothing. Just lay them off s quick a possible. You can also send payments to credit card whenever you have spare money. As its interest is actually calculated daily. (Unlike mortgages.)

Did they know they were lying to you?

Probably not a good person to hire, maybe let your bosses know. 

Must be market by market or builder by builder. DR Horton in Vegas absolutely will not give you a discount on the “sales price”. Not if you buy 10 at just the right time to hit their sales target. Not if you buy the worst lot with the slowest selling model. They are literally building their own comps. What they will offer you is an appliance package, or closing cost help, or a low fixed rate loan. 

Ps. Speaking of appraisals. I LOVED getting a loan through DR Horton on a DR Horton build, that I had to pay for a DR Horton appraisal. I can’t help but imagine it would be that guy’s last day if the appraisal came in $1 under the sales price. 

Like your post title suggests, you die to avoid the taxes. When you die your heirs pay zero taxes. All the depreciation and the capital gains go away. It’s an incredible gift to real estate investors. It’s basically an unlimited contribution Roth, with tax free borrowing. 

You can EASILY pass several million to your heirs tax free and avoid at least a $1M in taxes if you spend anywhere near 20 years investing in real estate. 

You can’t already own the property. 

Any capital improvements on a not owned yet property would involve a complex 1031 you’d want someone like @Dave Foster involved in. 

1) I think it’s “funny” that not one news article I ever read for the last 5 years had headlines like “Housing at historical record lows! Buy now!”

2) I bet you could draw that same or even more extreme graph for new car prices. What’s the guess on what happens there? 

3) Average income was up 4.5% in 2024. It wouldn’t take much time with “steady” home prices for the graph to self correct. 

4) I assume at least some of this is choice. People are not choosing the cheapest housing available. Many are choosing the most expensive they can afford on purpose. And to a lesser extent gig work, house hacking, roommates.