All Forum Posts by: Jeff Copeland

I don't see any particular benefit, only more complicated bookkeeping. 

You would run everything through an LLC for one (or both) of two reasons:

1. Asset protection. This is a valid reason to hold property in an LLC in some cases, but renting to yourself accomplishes nothing in this regard, because you aren't going to sue yourself anyway.

2. Tax savings. Routing income though, and paying yourself a salary from, your LLC to save on FICA tax can be a valid tax strategy. But, again, renting to yourself accomplishes nothing in this regard, since most LLCs are pass through entities for tax purposes.

Like others have already stated, finding the right CPA is key. 

My gut says it would be very difficult to claim the material participation and hours needed (and have them hold up in an audit or tax court) when you are both out of state and a full-time working professional. 

However...If you are married filing jointly, perhaps your spouse could. They key is having enough hours in direct material participation in the operation of the rental activity. Difficult to do from out of state, but it might even be worth spending some time where the property is located to meet the requirement (if the tax savings are significant enough). 

There's a Facebook group called Tax Smart Real Estate Investors (no affiliation) you might want to check out where the nuts and bolts of the STR loophole and REPS are discussed on an almost daily basis.

 I truly understand where you are coming from, but I would be very cautious about making a unilateral determination about what is considered a reasonable accommodation for a disability, and what is considered "some type of luxury and not something that is an actual need that needs to be accommodated".

Frankly, this is not your call to make. And the owner is paying you not only to enforce common sense rules, but to understand the ADA and the proper & legal way to hande a request for a reasonable accommodation.

Most city and county governments have a position called an ADA Liaison (or something to that effect) whose position exists to train local businesses and landlords on ADA requests and what is reasonable / unreasonable as it pertains to accommodations (often the same person that gives training once or twice a year at the local Board of Realtors, so you might even be able to reach out to them for a point of contact).

Rather than operating in a vacuum, or taking your advice from a public forum, why not reach out to that person in your jurisdiction and get an opinion straight from the horse's mouth?

Welcome to BP. There is a wealth of information here, along with experts in a variety of topics. But in order to get specific answers, you might consider asking more specific questions. 

Licensing - For what, exactly? Do you want to get your real estate license? An occupational license for a long term rental? A short term rental license? A business license for your LLC? Or something else?

Tax - What do you want to know, exactly? Property taxes? Capital Gains tax? Income tax? Sales tax?

Anything on the paperwork/legal side - Again, what exactly are you trying to figure out? Sales contracts? Leases? Property Management Agreements? Evictions? Asset protection? Estate planning?

I'm not knocking you for asking. Most of us here in the forums are more than happy to help you. But I genuinely have no idea what you are asking for.

Ironically, you can find a ton of information about all of the above topics with a little research here in the forums. 

Choose your battles wisely. The statement about a disability concerns me. One might argue that she is asking for a reasonable accommodation (and hard to argue that it's not reasonable if it has been happening for 20 years with no major problems). 

I'd suggesting taking a proactive step towards a compromise (such as installing a bike rack) that might solve the problem while still accommodating the tenant.

This is an interesting question and a great point. 

I can think of a few reasons:

1. Not all of these metrics are readily available in most software systems (incidentally, @Matt Speer is working on some interesting solutions), they have to be calculated manually, and

2. These metrics change constantly. At least daily. Yesterday's numbers are no longer accurate/valid today, and

3. Some of them can be manipulated and/or don't really tell you anything.

For example, you'd think "Days on Market" for rentals could be a crucial metric for landlords/PMs (and a corollary to vacancy), but a PM could take two months getting a property ready to list, and then list it and get it rented in 10 days, reflecting 10 days of vacancy in some customer facing metrics. But isn't it really 70 days of vacancy? (And what if the 60 days of vacancy was planned by the owner as part of a rehab/repositioning and resulted in a planned 50% rent increase - How is that a bad thing?)

Even landlord retention is tricky. It sounds like a great metric to use, but consider: A PM with 10 owners who lost 2 owners because they sold their rentals at the peak of the market has 80% retention, while a PM with 500 owners who got fired by 50 of them for being negligent has 90% retention. Which one is better?


@Matt Speer

Start the eviction process immediately. This will not get better with age. 

It is never a good idea to rent to a tenant who cannot afford to pay the initial security deposit. That was one of your first red flags. 

This has the potential to cost you thousands of dollars in legal expenses, lost rent, and repairs. It would have been much more profitable to hire a professional property manager in the first place. 

We've had solar on our primary for several years here in Florida, and generally love it. 

Some things to be aware of:

1. There are different business models. You can buy the panels outright with cash, you can finance them, or you can lease them. Figure out what works best for you.

2. There are also different models in terms of metering. Some utilities offer "net metering" - which means if you are fortunate enough generate more energy that you use, you essentially sell it back to the grid and reduce your utility costs accordingly. In other cases, your generating capacity might just power your home, and if you make extra, it just goes unused rather than going back to the grid. 

3. Invest in solar for the reduced utility costs (and in some cases, the tax credit). Don't expect them to add value on resale or appraisal. The market just doesn't seem to support this yet. In most cases, this means it needs to be a long term hold where you pay the utility costs in order for it to make sense. 

4. The panels do have to come off if/when you re-roof. Many installers will include one time removal & reinstallation (later on) in their initial bid. This is something to check on (and them hope they are still around in 10 years when you need to call them on it!). 

I'm not aware of any reason you cannot ask an applicant "Why was your SSN not issued until after 2011?" and it seems like a very good question to ask as part of your due diligence. The reason could be something very simple and innocuous. 

In my experience, coin-op will likely be a net negative for you (as far as income and expenses are concerned) on a triplex. 

The machines cost 3 times as much, and cost 3 times as much to service and repair, and three rental units just will not generate enough income to create any positive ROI.

A rule of thumb I've see and experienced is around 10 units is the breakeven point for coin up machines. 

One alternative is to just implement a flat monthly fee for unlimited use of the non-coin-op machines.