All Forum Posts by: Bogdan Cirlig

Yes it's legit to have pre-incorporation expenses. Just keep documents and receipts. Once you incorporate the accountant will put them and and you can take the money out tax free once the business has cash to repay you.

I'll pass the word to the CEO, I'm meeting him next week.

send me a PM or post here how you finance the deal and some numbers and we can all look and give you feedback. There's a forum "analyze my deal" best to do it there.

Truth to be told you can never write everything down. If you try it will look like a nasty 20 page legal document that bends your mind. Business much as Marriage is based not on legal documents to regulate it, but on mutual respect and harmony.

I personally decided that I will never (again) enter in a business with Family and very close Friends. Because I lost BFFs due to a business, and I strained family relationships due to another business. 

The inevitable (as in marriage) is how are you going to handle the "shitz". Because it *will* happen, it's not if it happens, it's to be prepared for when it happens. 2 chefs in same kitchen will always be a disaster. 2 similar personalities/tempers will be a disaster.

You should very clearly know each other and who ends an argument and if either of you can END an argument, regardless of who's right or wrong or whatever.

Also in a business you should agree on who owns what areas of responsibility and agree, cross your heart and hope to... that the person who owns that area HAS the final word on decisions.

Running a business is not democracy, it's like this: I will hear your feedback, from anyone who cares to speak up and I will speak up last after I heard everyone, but I make the final decision. Decisions need to be made in a timely manner without agonizing days of debate. decisions can be corrected promptly if they're wrong. Having one person with final word poses great dangers to your business relationships especially with friends, because you did things together before and suddenly one is "BOSS". I learned that this never works with close friends. They will laugh in your face if you try to say, look, we gotta make a decision and I will make that one: we're going this way. 

To avoid "bossing" around each other, clearly cut dry as I said above, areas of ownership in the business. Since it;s just 2 of you, it's hard to have a tie breaker, but you can agree to have a 3 party tie breaker OR do as Venture Capitalists do, ALL partners have to agree to fund a deal or else it's not going to happen.

Good luck ;-)

Everything you do in a property that you list at tax time as "Rental Investment asset" is tax deductible. However, there's a difference in repairs and maintenance vs "improvements". The latter ones need amortized, hence you can't write it off in 1 year from your tax. Each item has a published replacement life, such as Heater, carpet etc. You can look those up with IRS (google up). Also if you use TurboTax or other software, they will properly classify and start tracking the depreciation.

Repairs you made while you lived in it to the best of my knowledge can NOT be depreciated now. Only what happens while you hold your asset as "business asset" meaning it's making you income / or passive losses

Miles are deductible again if used while your house is a Rental Income generating asset. However, you must document every single trip and the purpose. IMHO, I never claimed such ting, it's a huge red flag to get audited and big headache. I prefer to get a Corporate Lease on my car and end the mileage story. Your situation may be different.

Welcome to BP. it's a great place to put and end to your restless nights :)

My $0.02 is that there is no single supreme rule, it's rather a harmony of rules that we all bend and adjust to make an overall "music to my ears". It largely depends on your objective with the purchase, which if you can disclose, we can give you more info on your strategy.

Leverage your cash position? Also you should make money when you buy, aka, equity. The rest call it "reward" for doing a good job at holding them.

... and definitely speed typing from BP for IPhone drives the Apple "auto-cucumber" crazy.

No you're right. In fact Trulia works as well. Youngsters do appreciate the new tools and ease of use of mobile apps these sites have.

Also note tha fact that Zillow has been on an acquisition spree and grabbed every important listings site such as Postlets, Hotpads and now Trulia merger.

These sites alone were the massive source to posting on craigs (not directly but by generating the copy-paste) code. Honesty, Im sure Zillow would love to cut the post to craigs ability and slowly face it out. Not to make politics here but that's what it is :)

How do you define "quiet, B- up and coming neighborhood" ? Sorry to rain on it, but it's a low income block, median household income $23,000, crime seems high, schools are 3 out of 10, local renter density is almost 60% and vacancy rate a whooping 18%. To me at best looks like class D.