All Forum Posts by: Cam Jimmy

@Margaret J. Teach us some techniques that you learned from Clever Investor program. :) 

Yes "the richest man in Babylon" was an awesome read.

"set for life" was good, actually a new book by Scott Trench from bigger pockets 2016

All of Brandon Turners (bigger pockets) books are very helpful

These not only help you learn... but they just straight up Motivate you!

@Adrian Fajardo Yeah ive done all my own renovations, but my experience is limited to that property and my house that I live in. First off Its never as easy as someone says it is lol, unless you already have the experience. Secondly, if you hire out the work.. it will be completed Much faster than you doing it yourself (at least in my case, because I work full-time). However... the learning experience and the confidence building is priceless in my opinion. I can fix, or replace basically anything now and its a good feeling. Just way your pros and cons though and go with your gut.

@Adrian Fajardo Just an FYI, I just renovated a 2br 1 bath side of my duplex, with a brand new kitchen, bathroom, new flooring throughout, new paint, and a bunch of random repairs like drywall and such. I did all of my own work and I used builder grade cabinets and I made my own custom counters and STILL that work cost me about $21,000. and that is only for 1 side of the duplex. So I bet if I paid a contractor to do that it would have costed up around $45k.

Nunaka Valley?

Linda thanks for the response. My only business is my Rental Business. I DO have a business license for my rentals though, and I do all of my own work on my rentals. So I'd hope to be able to write these off.  

My situation: I was living in my own home for more than half of 2016, and I recently bought a duplex. I am now living in 1/2 of my duplex, while renting out my old home and the other half of my duplex. I usually use turbo tax, and I'm usually very good at figuring things out as I use Turbo tax. But I would like some answers before I actually have to start figuring things out :)

My questions are 

1) Can I depreciate %100 of my duplex if I live in 1 side? 

2) Between the time when I rented out my home and when I actually got to move into my duplex, (2 months I had to wait because I had to give the old tenants time to move out) I was basically forced to live with my in-laws. I had to rent a storage unit for my tools and materials to do repairs, and I had to pay someone to use their shop to actually work on things (for my business: repairs, maintainance things. etc...) Do I get to write off the storage unit and shop usage charges for my business? Even though the shop usage was with a friend?

3) Since I lived in my house for 5 years before renting it, Do I still have to pay capital gains or "recapture" taxes when I sell it? Is there a certain amount of years that one must live there to be "exempt" from those taxes? Same with my duplex if I live there?

4) Also I would like to take my home office deduction while I lived at my house and duplex too... Can I take my home office deduction for part of the year while I lived at my house and part of the year I lived at my duplex? This seems kind of complicated to do, but hopefully not.

5) last question: If i buy something.. for example Ice melt for my duplex, Do I get to write off the whole thing or just %50 since I live there too?

Thanks to anyone who can help answer these questions!

Congrats! I just did my first deal a few weeks ago too!

Thanks eveyone!

You need to find out of the tenant is on any kind of a lease (month to month, 6-months, 1-year). Alaska state law requires you to give 30-days notice before you can kick somebody out once you've acquired a new property and it currently has tenants. I'm going through the exact same thing right now, I have to live with my in-laws for over a month until i can move into my new property.