All Forum Posts by: Dusty Laurin

@Bob Norton also, any tips on finding a good real estate accountant???

@Bob Norton thank you! My income comes from 1 Airbnb, and we are now in escrow with our first rental (long-term). Would the Airbnb income change any part of what you said?

@Teri Husak what do you use to track your hours? Do you use an app or did you just create a spreadsheet on your own?

@Whitney Hutten thank you! We haven’t even closed on our first rental yet. This is going to be for next year. We are having a hard time finding a good CPA who actually knows about the rental side of real estate. Hopefully, we’ll find a good one soon!

@Teri Husak thank you! That is helpful. As far as what counts towards the 750 hours, are there any things that don’t count that you thought would? Does real estate education count?

After doing some research on the IRS website and reading other articles, another question I have is should we have an S-Corp?  In an article I read, it said that as a real estate professional, all my income would be considered "ordinary income" and would be subject to self-employment tax.  That article suggested that an S-corp is "almost a must" for anyone who becomes a real estate professional.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  Are there any real estate professionals in these forums who can attest to any of this? 

@Michael Plaks, that's another question we have. We aren't sure what counts toward the 15 hours and what doesn't.  I have been keeping track of everything I do with real estate and I definitely make that 15 hours, but I don't know if I'm counting things that I shouldn't.  I'll check out that article.  Thanks!

@Christopher Smith, that's one of the questions we have. I know I have some of the qualifications, but we don't know them all. We were hoping someone who does it could help us with that and some other general info on it.

My husband and I are considering listing me as a Real Estate Professional on our taxes for 2021, and we are looking for others who have done this successfully so we can get some more detailed information on it.  We asked our CPA about it, but she had limited information.  We have a lot of questions about it and specifically about qualifying for it. 

My husband is reading "The Book on Advanced Tax Strategies (Vol.2)" by Amanda Han and Matthew MacFarland, which is where we first learned about it.  The book has some great info, but we need to expand on it to see if it is something that would work out for us.

Anyone who has experience with it, please comment or contact us to discuss further.  We appreciate any info y'all can give us.  Thank you!