All Forum Posts by: Curt Riffel

Depreciation is one of the largest expenses you would be able to take if you classified it as a rental property. The income/rent needs to be reported on your tax return regardless, unless he lives there less than 14 days.

As Dawn mentioned a gift will not lower your taxable income. For most workers I suggest maxing out your 401K contributions when eligible, to lower your income into the lower tax brackets. Going forward for 2019, the maximum you can contribute to a 401k, is $19,000. 

Fix and flips are usually straight-forward as far as tax preparation goes. As long  as you kept good records for the house purchase, renovation costs, real estate taxes paid, and sales price you should be in good shape. Nearly any tax preparer will be able to handle this, but finding the right person is usually the hard part.

Hey that's awesome, welcome to BP. Good luck in finding and curating your real estate investing team. If you have any tax questions let me know!

Allen itself is a fantastic place to live. Very desirable, albeit the location is super far north of Dallas. Mckinney is even further north as is Fairview. If you are working in Allen I would suggest Frisco, The Colony, Allen, Fairview, Mckinney, Richardson, or Plano. 

Everything in those markets are hot and the prices have gone up 50%+ in the last 3 years. The rents should be reasonable as there is pressure keeping them down from all of the 'luxury' apartments that have come online recently. Frisco has some growing pains from their rapid growth, Richardson is more mature, but older housing stock, Plano is a mix of old and new, Allen, Fairview, and Mckinney are mostly new. 

Fox, Byrd, and Co is a full service tax, accounting, and audit shop in Dallas. They have about ten CPAs in their office and they mostly do tax returns. They do taxes for Small businesses, Partnerships, C-Corps, S-Corps, Individual, and Trusts; they can definitely advise you. One of the partners is Kerry Johnson and he could definitely meet with you in person. 

I can't speak to your specific situation, but I do taxes in Dallas and can give you some information to help you on your way. Keep a separate bank account if possible for your rentals - all the money coming in and going out. Mortgage is not an expense. Below are the most common things you should keep track of each year. 

Depreciation - 27.5 years - differentiate the cost of land separately from the cost of the building - keep your paperwork from the purchase and the subsequent sale

Income/Revenue - All rents received, sometimes security deposits, late fees

Expenses- Maintenance, interest paid, utilities, real estate taxes paid, repairs

Rich would be Highland Park, University Park, Southlake, Keller, and parts of Frisco, Plano, Prosper, Mckinney

Upper middle class would be Richardson, Plano, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, North Fort Worth, Las Colinas, Frisco, Prosper, Grapevine, Addison, Little Elm, Mckinney, The Colony, and Flower Mound. 

Lower middle class would be Lewisville, Garland, Arlington, Irving, Grand Prairie

Poor would be South Dallas

A lot of growth has been in Far North Dallas in the last 5 years. (Prosper, Frisco, Little Elm, Mckinney, Flower Mound) I'm not too familiar with the mid-cities (Hurst, Euless, Bedford) Everything in DFW is relatively 'safe' and everything in the upper/rich described above is really safe. If we go into a recession I'd be concerned about the upper middle class paying their mortgages in the hot new areas of Prosper, Frisco, Mckinney, and Little Elm. 

B/B+ sounds like Garland, parts of Irving, and Arlington. I would focus on the Northern part of Garland near Richardson. A lot of growth will be happening in Irving/Las Colinas in the next few years. A lot of growth has happened near meeting points of The Colony/Plano/Frisco city lines in the last 2-3 years and is pricey. 

I feel like the housing market in DFW will heat up bigly when the weather starts to warm up again. We are in a similar economic state, probably improving actually. Those that have recently moved here and are renting right now and those with decent incomes that have rented for a while will still want houses in the long run. I agree there is softness now but it will soon harden. Another recent announcement is the McKesson HQ moving from San Francisco to Irving, TX.  

Any houses in the range of $325,000 or less will be purchased. Property taxes remain high in the lone star state but rising rents will tilt those with a long time horizon towards home ownership. I rented an apartment for a few years when I first moved to DFW, but had generally wanted to own a house. I think most people want to own a house as well.