All Forum Posts by: Christopher Cousin

@Chad Hedgepeth The best thing to do is let the experts do their job, so get a lawyer that specializes in RE to help with your entities and a CPA that specializes in RE to help with tax matters.

I'm a CPA by trade and I STILL hire out my tax/bookkeeping work.  Why would I hire someone else to do the job that I'm perfectly capable of?  It's a matter of time.  In my RE business, my time is better spent doing real estate related activities than researching tax and legal issues and filing the paperwork that needs to be filed quarterly/annually/etc.

@Samuel Rogers Welcome to the BP community and best of luck with your investing! Your question lets me know that you really need to better understand your own investor identity.  The first thing that you need to ask yourself is "Who do you want to serve?"

For example, the fix and flip strategy has a completely different customer type than the buy and hold strategy and these customers have different expectations when it comes to where they choose to live. Furthermore, within the buy and hold investment strategy, are you looking to rent to families or are you looking to rent to college students? These 2 customer types will have different values when it comes to property amenities, location, etc. When you know who you want to serve, you can better understand the risks involved with a particular investment strategy and create a better product(property) for the marketplace. 

Feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions. 

@John Haveman The key question that you need to ask yourself is who do you want to serve? Within each of those cities that you listed (and every city for that matter) there are distinct sub markets that have unique characteristics, so understanding who you want to serve will help you determine the BEST location for your investments.  For example, you mention single family homes, but does that mean low income housing or single family homes in areas with great school districts? Understanding who you truly want to serve can provide the insight to help you assemble the team that is necessary for manage the property you choose. 

Feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions.  Best of luck in your investing.

@Joe Koppel The best thing for you to do is to seek the advice of a professional CPA as this is a difficult question to answer without knowing your financial situation.  The income portion is fairly easy to estimate based on executed lease agreements and your (I assume) W2 wages, but a competent CPA can review your situation to ensure that you are taking advantage of every deduction available to you.  Furthermore, the biggest benefit of working with a CPA is that they can help with tax planning and strategy as your portfolio grows.   I wish you the best. 

PM me if you have any additional questions.

@Rita Oliva I think the question that you should ask yourself is "Who do you want to serve?" When you understand the tenant type that you want to serve, you can provide better service to your tenants overall because you can better anticipate their needs and it will also help you to determine the property types to invest in.  For example, if your goal is to serve middle class families, you might want to consider looking in areas that have good school zones so that you can attract that tenant type. 

@Claudia R. Welcome to the BP community. There is a ton of great information and resources shared within the community. 

Due to your interest in buy and hold investing, you might want to check out the section of the site on landlording:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/category/landlording-2/

I wish you the best in your real estate investing! Let me know if you have any questions.

@Phillip Lee I typically budget for $100/month for the insurance but you should definitely get a quote for yourself as you may have better rates in your area. 

If you currently have homeowner's/renter's/landlord's insurance, you should check to see if there is a business activity exception. If this exception is in your policy, it is unlikely that they will pay if you are running a STR and need to file a claim.

I say that because if you choose to go with an umbrella policy, be mindful that umbrella policies are intended to extend coverage on the underlying policy.  Therefore, the underlying policy needs to be the correct type of insurance.

@Phillip Lee Look into Proper Insurance. They underwrite policies specifically geared to STR and provide contents protection, liability protection, as well as income protection options for their policies. Best of luck in your investing!

https://www.proper.insure/

@Jeff Piscioniere Best of luck with your investing.  You might want to consider reaching out to @Bernard Reisz.  He is knowledgeable on the subject of SDIRAs and checkbook control and could help to answer some of your questions.

@Bobby Trinh My philosophy is to let the experts do what the experts do.  When it comes to asset protection and tax/accounting related issues, I'd much rather pay a few hundred extra now to let a lawyer/accountant do it because it is what they do full time.  With that said, check out KKOS Lawyers and Kohler and Eyre CPAs.  Mark Kohler, a partner in both firms, has a podcast that provides great tax and legal education and these firms are uniquely suited to serve entrepreneurs, and especially real estate investors.  You can set up a free 15 minute consult with each to see if they can help you in your particular situation.  I wish you the best in your investing!