All Forum Posts by: Duncan Taylor

Even in the general business and finances areas I've never given recipes or step by step do this then that. It is always a brainstorming give and take, try this, try that, talk to this person to see what they would do, type of discussion.

Gurus, sketchy coaches and such claim to have the magic answers. Mentors, true mentors, will help you find YOUR magic answer.

You know, I hadn't even thought of that!

There are some great resources there for business in general. Areas for financing, record keeping... the list is long. They also have great workshops that are often free or very low cost. These are all meat, no upsell, no bait and switch.

I would encourage anyone who hits a snag with you business to check them out and request a mentor in your area or by phone.

I see some things I need to add to our ground rules.

Mentoring a stranger in this area is new to me. I've done a lot of mentoring in general business and finance areas through score.org.

But outside of family and very close friends I have not done it in the area of investing.

I'm really looking forward to it!

No one? You are making me feel like Sisyphus from Greek mythology.

Ophelia,

We cross posted.

Bouncing ideas is a form of mentoring. I bet they appreciate it.

So, what do we do as mentors and potential mentors to convince the newbies we are really ready to help?

Ultimately the only proof is in the doing.

Bump.

Come on, there has to some older guys and gals out there, like me, I'm in my 60s. Someone who has succeeded and reached the point in their lives where they have the time to mentor a newbie without charging them.

I updated my score.org profile because of my move and as I was doing it I was called to take a step and a stand. I have complained about the sketchy coaches, gurus and such but haven't done anything about it.

Today, I realized if everyone who has the experience and financial ability each agreed to help just one person get their first deal AND DO IT AT NO COST like Score does we could really make a difference.

So, I agreed to mentor someone who contact me awhile ago. We met this evening for dinner at the club and we set down some basic ground rules. I will leave it up to them to disclose or not who my new mentee is.

I won't charge him for my time. I won't fund any of his deals. I won't do the work for him. We meet each Wednesday evening at the club. Etc. We discussed the ground rules, shook hands, had dinner and got to work.

I will post more about our first encounter on my blog as soon as it is back up. The technicians are looking at it now.

Now, I know many here have plenty of experience but are busy building their holdings and managing their day to day business.

But, I know there HAS to be others like me here. People who have the experience and the financial ability to NOT CHARGE for their time to help the newbies get started.

So, who else will step up and give a hand up to a newbie?

If you do, you should expect a very aggressive challenge by the IRS.

At $350K of combined value it might be worth the cost to get a segregation study if you intend to keep these a long time. If you do end up segregating, keep good records to prevent having to recapture the depreciation of the reclassified assets. You will need to justify the sale price of those assets to the new owner at their then current value on your books.

It is a big hassle to do this, but it can make you a lot of money if you do it right and are careful in your record keeping.

Why didn't you ask your attorney those questions?

As for the obsolescence issue there are ways around it.

For example, a few years ago I placed some SFHs, duplexes and other small multifamily properties in a GRAT for my kids. Once the transfer was complete and the dust settled, the trust administrator (not me, by the way) coordinated a 1031 exchange of all but one of those properties into a 10 story office building in Overland Park, KS which was later fully rented by Sprint.

With 1031 exchanges, 'keeping forever' takes on a whole new meaning.