All Forum Posts by: Gregory Wilson

Excellent description and analysis.

Sadly, the "home office" deduction is one of the IRS pet peeves meaning that you are more likely to be audited for this deduction when it is on your personal income tax return. Yet another reason, (albeit not in the top three) why all rental property should be in an LLC with a wife or child as a partner (even .1%) so as to file the Form 1065.

Number 1 is liability protection, Number 2 is privacy, Number 3 is ease of transfer for estate planning, Number 4 is possible sale of the LLC to conceal sales price (also called drop and swap), Number 5 is having a single entity for financial reporting, Number 6 is brand identity. So maybe the IRS Audit Lottery is Number 7.

We paint a wall that has been repaired. Anchors require repair. When a TV wall mount is on the wall we give the tenant the option of leaving the wall mount in place (assuming it is well located) or paying for the repair.

 The letter with a family photo would be a great product. But, unless narrowly targeted, prohibitively expensive. You have an envelope, printed with addressee (stick on address label says junk mail) two color copies, paper, first class postage.  With labor and material, and not counting the identification and obtaining the addresses of owners and matched to properties, I guess about $2.00 per letter. 

 I was thinking that the post card thing was worn out, but maybe if one targeted the postcards to reference only addresses that were actively seeking renters on Zillow or Redfin, one could avoid all that waste that comes from blanketing every address in a zipcode.

I get a postcard or a pretend hand written inquiry about my properties at least weekly. Enormous mass mailings. I think that market approach is saturated.

I wonder if you could look on Zillow or Redfin for apartment rentals that have been unfilled for say more than 100 days. I would think landlords with 100 day old vacancies would be a good lead opportunity.

Skip the second home altogether. Its a mistake too many have made. Unless you have discovered some hidden jewel, the traditional second home locations have all turned stale.

And, I am sorry to tell you, you don't have enough money to consider a second home. If you had a couple million in equities and a need to diversify your holdings by adding real estate, maybe. Just maybe. But a person who has $40k in "available cash on hand" needs to hold on to it for a rainy day.

 Agree 100%. But, for future reference, in Ohio there is a little used approach to always get your money back. It comes with some risk if one is not very careful. This is the recording of an "affidavit of facts related to title" under Ohio Revised Code Section 5301.252. The approach goes like this: The buyer records an affidavit in the seller's chain of title, carefully stating nothing untrue. A contract was entered, the buyer attempted to cancel and get the deposit back but the seller refused. End of affidavit. No argument, theories etc., because the affiant can be sued for defamation of title if anything is untrue. But, the seller will never close a sale until the buyer releases that claim and withdraws the affidavit because a new buyer's title company will not issue a title policy and the new buyer's mortgage lender will not make a mortgage loan.

Its not worth doing in this case but when real money is involved it is pretty effective.

The real issue is how much of a deposit do you have to try to get back from them.

Sure, your contingency might work but I assume you gave the deposit to the seller. Suppose they say "No, sue me." What are you gonna do then?

I know its mean to say that people who do their own contracts get what they deserve, but you must know that if you are paying a couple hundred thousand dollars for something it just might have been worth spending $600 on a lawyer to do a proper contract for you. Right?

I always am amazed when someone selling a $600,000 house brings me a listing agreement where they agreed to pay a stranger $30,000 to list their house for sale and they didn't even read the agreement much less spend the $250 to have a lawyer tell them that yes, if they sell it to their cousin during the listing period they still have to pay the $30k. Or, when the buyer sues everyone for undisclosed defects they have to pay the listing agent's attorneys fees, etc.

The predicate for extreme asset protection measures comes from state law. MD is bad compared to Ohio where piercing the corporate veil is a myth - applicable only where the owner (even 100%) has committed a crime or fraud. Maryland has more likely (but still long shot) criteria.

But, it is not safe to assume you won't be sued since the US has about 30 million civil lawsuits pending as I type this.

And, it is against public policy to insure intentional torts. So when you hire that able handyman and give him keys to all of the apartments and the security codes without learning that he is 90 days out of prison for breaking and entering and committing assault and kidnapping your umbrella coverage may not help.

And, these days, a million dollars of coverage will deal with the contents of a small truck that you sideswipe and it bounces around a little with the electronics inside. A serious accident with injured person requiring hospitalization can get to a million dollars in a month or two of medical care.

Hence the efforts by asset protection specialists.

For my part, I just use the LLC approach. One for each property and really good records.