All Forum Posts by: Cole Stephens

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for your comment. Regarding your comment, it is my understanding that if you deem part of your property as an investment in lieu of your personal residence, for that portion of the property that appreciates you are required to pay capital gains taxes on that amount since it was an investment and not your personal residence. Perhaps paying the CPA is the best option.

Hello, long time reader, first time poster. I have a question regarding a house hack strategy -- I apologize if it has been asked before, if there is a similar post please link it & I will utilize that as a reference. I haven't been able to find anything.

Some background: I am currently looking at purchasing my first home in ~1 year (the primary goal of this property will be a home, house hack on the side to help cover expenses). It will likely be a 3 bedroom, single family home. I have every intention on making this a house hack, but there are some concerns I have with taking the amount of the sq. footage that is rented out to be converted to a rental property to deduct expenses on tax returns, or to depreciate the assets every year. First & foremost, I will likely only keep this property for 5-10 years. Therefore, I will forego the 250/500 capital gains exemption for a personal property on the portion that is being invested & likely have to use a 1031 exchange in later years. Additionally, I have a suspicion that deducting part of the sq. footage for rental purposes & depreciating the asset will open me up to being audited (I am not scared of being audited, I would just rather not go through the trouble). 

Does anyone have any advice on the feasibility of not classifying the property as an investment property to depreciate or write off expenses such as furniture, dishes, insurance etc, & just collecting monthly rent on your property for a regularly classified home? By going this route, would I have to report the full amount of rental income as income, without being able to write off expenses, or are some expenses still able to be written off?

My goal is to simply analyze all of the options that I have, & determine the right strategy to move forward with. Is there any other decent tax strategy that may sound viable for this situation? 

Thank you in advance.