All Forum Posts by: Eric Betten

I have a question regarding owner occupied auction properties. If you acquire a property with the precious homeowner occupying the home can you evict the homeowner upon possession of the property? My primary lawyer whom I trust says tenants are protected from eviction during the pandemic but homeowners are not.

I asked on a real estate law Q&A forum and was told the same thing by another attorney who gave me some reference material. I researched this myself but law is way out of my realm of education or competence. When I checked the COVID addendums it did say many things about tenants, but nothing about previous homeowners. This leads me to believe that the same protections afforded to tenants do not in fact apply to previous homeowners.

My business partner who is also a property manager seemed skeptical about this based off of his personal experience with the tenants he deals with.

I’d be grateful for any input on this matter. Thank you guys for your time.

I live in the state of Massachusetts, might be relevant, might not be.

Thanks for your time BP community. Keep hustling the good hustle

I have an opportunity to enter an auction for a fix and flip attached to 16 acres of land. My plan is to attach an acre of the land and sell it off with an ARV of 350K on the conservative side which is a good deal on its own.

My plan was to carve up the remaining 15 acres into 1 acre lots and sell them off to developers. What is a good way to determine the price of the undeveloped land? I am waiting to hear back from the town on what it is zoned for to see if I can even do this but it seems like a solid plan with good returns. I'm pretty new to BiggerPockets and real estate investing in general but I don't think I've ever heard this topic covered before on a podcast or webinar. 

I would be grateful for any suggestions or resources you would reccomend

Thanks for your time BP community. Keep hustling the good hustle. 

Would love to hear a veteran CPA's opinion on this

Hello BP Community and hopefully admin, I have noticed that some of the foreclosure listings on your find deal sections are either not listed on other mainstream real estate sites or come up as already sold on sites like Foreclosure.com, Realtor.com or Zillow.com. How does one discern which foreclosures are still active and which ones have been sold? A BP realtor did tell me to watch out for fake listings, not just on the BP website but foreclosure websites in general. I had run into these problems with HUDhomes.com before I knew what BiggerPiockets was.  I am a newcomer starting this year so any tips on how to know if a foreclosure listed is in fact available or not or other resources I can use to reliably cross reference would be very much appreciated. 

Thanks for your time, BP community. Keep hustling the good hustle. 

I had purchased my BP pro membership before I had established my LLC for my real estate ventures. Is the cost of the BP pro membership now a tax write off for next year? I also learned from my partner and lawyer that since the LLC is filed under my home address now a portion of my mortgage payments and utility payments are a tax deduction. My other question is how much can I get away with while staying compliant with the law? I have a detached garage with a loft that it unused as of now other than for storage (not even vehicles) and a basement that I had been converting into an office/gym space anyway. What do I need to do to have the IRS consider this "Work space for business"?

As always, thanks for your time and expertise. Keep hustling the good hustle. 

@Scott Wolf

Awesome information. Thanks for your time, friend 👍

@Scott Wolf

I see, I want to make sure I’m understanding you correctly. It sounds like in order for a property to qualify for a 1031 two criteria’s have to be met:

You must hold the property for a certain amount of time and use said property for investment/cash flow purposes

It must be invested into a similar property. (Multi family for multi family) (single family for multi family will not qualify)

Is that correct? If so I am going to change up my plan/strategy and start looking at multi families as well.

All that being said, if the flip is done under an LLC you can spend your profits on tax deductible expenses just like any other business, is that right?

@Scott Wolf

Thanks for the info. I will look into the RE meetups nearby and focus on expanding my network.

I also did not know you cannot 1031 the profit from a flip. Maybe I am misunderstanding or using the wrong term.

From what I was told you are able to use profits from a property to roll into another investment property tax free as long as you find a property within 30 days and close within 90. Is that incorrect? I also live in the state of Massachusetts, may or may not be relevant.

Hello BP Community. 

I am breaking into real estate investing this year as a licensed and insured electrician by trade. My goal is to flip in the first quarter and 1031 the proceeds into a cashflow property. My question is can you get financing (or OPM, other people's money as Robert Kiyosaki would say) to participate in an auction. My mentor who owns several multifamily buildings and my business partner who is an independent property manager/licensed electrician both said you need your own money to enter an auction. 

Is this correct in all your experiences as investors and lenders? I can draw up a solid business plan that shows that the property will be a profitable flip using the fix n flip calculator and the methods described in the book on house flipping houses to accurately price your property. I understand from a lenders perspective why this may be less than ideal but if the bid exceeds the maximum allowable offer, I can just stop bidding on it. Seems a shame I have to pass up on all these potential leads because I can't find financing. 

Thanks for your time, keep on hustling. 

Man your story is so similar to mine its scary. Stay strong friend, I've been called selfish too amongst other things. Believe in your mission and surround yourself with other people that do too, your network is your net worth. Success and proof is one of the most satisfying I told you so's in life. Good luck to you.