All Forum Posts by: Cyrus Lendvay

I was wondering if anybody here has any experience with Hudson and Marshall. Have you bought anything from them? Was is pretty straight forward? Any other opinions on them?

I was thinking of looking at their inventory, but figured I'd check with y'all before I put to much time into it.

Cyrus

Cool!! A meetup in the South Bay (or at least closer). I'll do my best to show. I just can't make it all the way up to Oakland in a reasonable time. Cyrus

So, people often say that you can expect to pay 50% of the market rent toward upkeep on a place. I'm looking into a condo foreclosure and putting together some initial numbers and wondering how people would apply this rule to condos. Would you just include the HOA dues in that 50% since they take care of roofs, maintenance beyond the walls, etc?

For example: Condo market rent is $1000 and HOA dues are $190. I've found that condos require so much less maintenance than houses that it seems like a reasonable assumption. But, I wanted to see what your opinions are.

PS. Please don't turn this into an HOA bashing thread. I'm really not interested and I don't completely agree.

Interesting. You can't even get a list of features without giving up contact information.

Wow, thanks for all the information on auction.com. I did some searching on it a while back and there wasn't much discussion yet. This is great information.

So, for those who have used it, do I need to worry about additional escrow or title services? Does the title come free and clear?

Thanks
Cyrus

Ok, so I'll be in Las Vegas next week for CES. While I'm there, would anybody like to meet up, have a couple drinks, and talk real estate? I should be landing Tuesday afternoon and leaving Friday morning. During the day I'll be a the show, but my evenings are free. I'm staying on the strip, but I'll have a rental car so I can get just about anywhere as long as there isn't a whole lot of traffic.

So,

1. Anybody interested?
2. Where's a good spot where we can relax. Some place where the volume is low enough for talking.
3. Did I mention that I'll buy the first round of drinks? At least for the first 10 people. (I have to limit it in case 100 people decide to show)\

-Cyrus

Only the miles you want as a deduction. :) For each day I'm driving for business, I note the starting mileage, all stops, and ending mileage. You should ask an accountant what's required. Or, I'm sure the IRS web site has guidelines. Cyrus

I wouldn't bother denying them. Just choose a different qualified tenant. You said you had a few good candidates.

Whether the S corp owns the car or not does no change how much you can deduct. It's completely a matter of how much you use it for business and how much you use it personally.

Whether you want to use the standard mileage deduction or go "actual cost" depends on how much it costs and how much paperwork you are willing to do. Usually you are better off doing actual costs unless you buy inexpensive cars and keep them for a long time (like me). If you replace cars every few years (like realtors do) doing actual costs is the way to go.

You should definitely have an accountant help you the first year.

You certainly can. You'll need to track your mileage. See the IRS site for details on how to do that properly. With a cheap vehicle, you'll definitely want to use the standard mileage deduction.

I highly recommend that you buy a couple hours time from a CPA at the beginning of your endeavor. They'll save you money and hassle in the long run.

Cyrus