All Forum Posts by: Ben Higginbotham

After reading this thread  and the title I feel like I may have just been traped by click bait.......

@Matthew J.

Why do you say that it is to late to finance your house? You should be able to get a bank to write you a loan for say 70% of the value of the home and that money would be for you to do with as you please. Or you could look into a Home equity line of credit (HELOC) where you would not have to start paying on the money till you pulled it out to use on something.

On the other hand there is something to be said for having your home paid for that should be freeing up some of your cashflow that you could now put towards your investments, if you're saving $1000/mo not having a home mortgage just make sure that money is going to investing and not just increased lifestyle expenses and dont worry about it, you will build capital quickly.

Tell your handyman to look on youtube. no in all seriousness, the click and lock flooring that they have now is a snap to put down. A couple months ago I did a 4x8 bathroom in about 2 hours, that included pulling and resetting the toilet. If your handyman nows hou to do ceramic he will love vinel tiles.

@Account Closed

Are you in town? If you live on a property that is Smoke free by order of the owner and inforced by a written lease from the non owner occupents then I think the next time you smell smoke you should take the only prudent course of action and get out of the house say to the front porch ( where your tenant might be sitting) then you might take the prudent action of calling the Fire Department of course you should loudly warn your tenant that there appears to be a fire due to the smell of smoke on your non smoking property and that you are calling the fire department so they can check it out. Then just see what happens.

Insert sarcasm where you feel is approprate..........

I tend to agree with @Jerry W. Of course you need to add a clause in your contract for it and if you feel the need raise the rent a little but look at it this way, if that tenant had a home business making thinng-a-majigs that he then sold on craigslist would you be upset? There would still be a business opperating out of the unit, there might still be incresed foot traffic through the unit but the tenant would not be cutting into what you feel is your slice of the pie. I think I would just have a talk with them and make sure they understand that they are responsible for the property and that they must have insurance to cover libility. Then just sit back and appriciate that you seem to have a back door way to keep tabs on your property, just keep an eye on the reviews they will tell you if anything starts to get hinky.

@Rudy Hernandez Thanks for the welcome, I have decided to just start looking for something to come up and go from there. If it takes till the fall/winter then so be it but might as well start looking now.

Ok @Dave Toelkes you are saying that the percentage of time is based off the total amoutn of time that I owned it and not the ammount of time out of the last 2 years? that makes some sence I think. Thanks for the comment.

So here is the situation. My wife and I have just sold a property that we have held since 2009, from the time of purchous till May 2016 it was an occupied rental, from may till October of that year it was vacant as I did some repairs. in October we moved in to the home and lived there as a primary residence untill moving across country so I could take a new job. our total time living there was about 9 Mo. 

The house was bought for 60k and sold for 85k with about 7500 in expenses so there is not much capital gains to be taxed but I dont like paying taxes if I dont need to. I read the IRS code to state that because I lived on the property and then moved to take a new job I can take the 500,000 exemption divided by the percent of 2 years that I lived there and Shelter that abount from capital gains, 

9mo / 24mo = 0.375

500,000 x 0.375 =187,500

If I am understanding this right I should be able to shelter 187,500 in capital gains which will more than cover what we pulled out of the property. Is this correct?

PS I do have a tax accountant but I am being told that there is now way to avoid the gains tax unless you have lived there for 2 years.

Hi,

My wife and I recently moved to the Spring area due to a new job, as part of the move we sold the house that we had in Indiana and cashed out our equity. I am now looking at some investment options in the spring woodlands area. My question is wether this area has the same winter downturn in RE sales as the area that I come from? I am thinking that I may sit on my cash till later this fall unless I find a smoking deal and then try to find a fix and flip house. does this fit with the market trends down here? Thanks for any info.

I also just moved to the Spring/Woodlands area and am looking at the market thinking about buying a property. I like the advise that @Jeff Wallace gave about taxes as I have not heard that before. The property taxes here are structured different than where I came from and it is good to see that there is a stragity for them.