All Forum Posts by: Val Csontos

Does anyone else has any ideas, how to show appreciation to your team? 

Just seeking for second opinion on this Tax situation:

 I am a fulltime Investor and I according to the IRS Sec 469c I qualify for the "Active" status, BUT my wife has a fulltime job with, w2 salary.

We own an S Corp Jointly from which we manage our properties.  So my question is, do we get to off set RE looses against her Salary (active income) and to what extent?

See below what I had found on this so far, so what so you all think?

Does that sound right?

Thanks for looking!

""A married couple filing a joint return will qualify as real estate professionals only if one spouse separately satisfies the two statutory tests.42 However, to determine whether a taxpayer materially participates in the rental real estate activity, Sec. 469(c)(7)(B) permits the taxpayer's spouse's participation to be taken into account. A married taxpayer filing separately must establish that he or she separately meets both statutory tests to qualify as a real estate professional and will not satisfy this requirement through spousal attribution.43""

I just Googled on "Renatus Scam" this is what came up: 

ComplaintCompany has misleading information on their website as well as with their employees.On April 26 I agreed to become an affiliate with Renatus after responding to an ad to learn how to become a real estate investor. After replying to the ad I was instructed to attend a 15 minute webinar about the company. The webinar was about being an affiliate, a marketer, or real estate investor. Before you can become a part of the company you have to pay $125 for the affiliate program. According to the company which is stated on their website:You share the education with others and get paid when they purchase an Essentials or A.I.T. Course.* Get paid $1,000 to $6,850 per qualified sale. * Get paid twice a week. * Checks are mailed directly to you. * To become an Affiliate and market the Renatus education courses, sign up as an Independent Marketing Affiliate (IMA) today! No purchase of any product is required for participation in the marketing opportunity.Once I become an affiliate there were weekly and daily webinars on how to make money with the company. Whenever an affiliate markets the Renatus education they only get paid $125. In order to received commissions of $1000 to $6850 the affiliate will have to purchase an education course. The education courses range from $1997 to $14997. If an affiliate purchase the $1997 they can only obtain commission of $1000 and in order to obtain commission over $1000- $6850 an affiliate would have to purchase course from $4997 to $14997. This information and compensation plan was misleading and not explained thoroughly in the beginning. On May 6 I ordered the Essentials course for $1997 only paid $399 and financed the remaining balance. When I reviewed the on-demand course I was not satisfied with the quality and up to date information provided. At this time I wish to obtain a refund of $125 for the affiliate program since the provided information is false. An affiliate can only obtain commission of $1000-6850 when they do purchase the Renatus product. Also, I wish to obtain a refund of $399 for the Essentials course.Desired SettlementI wish to obtain a refund of $125 for the affiliate program since the provided information is false. An affiliate can only obtain commission of $1000-6850 when they do purchase the Renatus product. Also, I wish to obtain a refund of $399 for the Essentials course.Business' Initial Response Contact Name and Title: *** ****** CEOContact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXXContact Email: ***@myrenatus.comTo whom it may concern,******* ******* enrolled to become an Independent Marketing Affiliate with Renatus on 4-26-13. She attended our National Conference in Layton, Utah on 5-3-13 and spent two full days in training learning about our products and compensation plan. At this event we explained in detail what it takes to earn income with our company as an affiliate. We explained that there is no product purchase required to participate in our income opportunity. The only requirement is to pay $125 application fee which gives each affiliate the right to earn income from marketing our products. It also gives them an online business center with marketing training, commission reports, order entry tools, FAQs, Compensation plan videos and written comp plan explanations, etc. To earn income individuals must market and sell our educational products. Their first 3 sales are passed ** their trainer as compensation for training them. Once they have completed 3 sales they will earn $1,000 on each personal sale that they make there after. It doesn't matter whether they purchase a product or not. ******* has incorrectly explained how our affiliate plan works. She has attended follow up training's and webinars where it was explained in detail. I do not believe that she was mislead or confused on the matter. When I met her at our National Conference she tearfully expressed appreciation for the opportunity we have created. She lined up for a video testimonial so that she could express her excitement and share her thoughts on the company web site, she shared a room with one of our leaders at the event and expressed again how excited she was to be involved. Following the National Conference she went home to North Carolina and decided to purchase our Essentials Course. She placed the order on 5-6-13 and began to view her classes. She studied Creative acquisitions, Real Estate Red Flags, Real Estate 101 and The Deal of the Decade. All of these classes are current and up to date in content. The instructors are seasoned real estate investors. ***** ***** teaches 3 of the classes she viewed. ***** has used the techniques he teaches to acquire over 300 properties for himself. Obviously, the content is valid and applicable when acted upon. I do not believe that her complaint is accurate and that her justification for a refund has merit. She signed the IMA agreement, purchased the product a couple of weeks later, attended our National Conference, attended training's, interfaced with our marketing team and never once expressed dissatisfaction or confusion to anyone. Not once did she attempt to contact the company to voice a complaint through an email, a phone call or communicate through our online customer support system. Instead, she chose to blindside the company by filing a complaint through the Better Business Bureau. Had she been willing to contact the company we would have worked diligently to work with her. As protocal when an issue of this nature arrises I personally contact those who were involved with the customer. ****** ***** is the affiliate who worked personally with *******. The following is her email reply to my inquiry, "Good afternoon ***,I hope all is well with you and your family. ******* ******* first exposure trough *****'s online system the week of March 25th. I tried to reach out to her to follow up with her and I never received a response. As a result, I sent a recording of the follow up session where ***** details the compensation plan for her review. April 25th she sent an email expressing she was recently laid off and she wanted to pursue the opportunity available with Renatus. She joined myself and ***** *** on a three-way call to go over any additional questions she may of have at that time. Over the same weekend, i sent her the IMA and educational links and she signed up. Afterwards, she signed up and attended the national conference where she also attended ******* ******** opportunity meeting and stayed after to talk with ******* ***** regarding financing her education. The week after the conference she called and said she placed her order for her essentials. I called her a week later to make sure her classes turned on and she said they have and she begin viewing the classes. I reached out to her again on May 31st to remind her to sign up for RAIS and her response was she already did last week. To my knowledge she told me she was talking a break from Renatus because she was becoming overwhelmed with the various systems, emails and other life stressers. I do recall her mentioning that someone got a hold of her credit card information in Utah and charged purchases in California. I'm not sure if they had anything to do with her recent actions or not. Please let me know if you need anything."Best regards,****** *****I have attached the purchase agreements ******* signed. Both agreements require a signed acknowledgment of our refund policy. *******'s rescission period has passed *** she failed to follow Renatus Policy when requesting a refund. This coupled together with her failure to contact the company directly, the inaccurate statements about being misled and her reference to outdated course content, lead me to believe that this is more about financial hardship than anything else.I will not grant a refund based on her complaint, but if she will contact me personally to discuss the real issue at hand I will consider a refund if she can demonstrate financial hardship. I can be reached through our customer care number at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Ask for me and they will transfer her to my office.Sincerely,*** ******Renatus CEO - See more at: http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/real-esta...

@Andre Yochi  Are you serious abbot the racist stuff? If you have ever visited a prison, if not than ever seen one on tv what did you observe? Did you ever see prison here in the USA  where 90% were white? I don't thinks so. Of course that minorities are discriminated against!

    Hopefully the sensless war on drugs will be over soon and this should help MOST of the folks with the above problems

Kind Regards

Val

@Brian Eastman Thanks for your pro input! That is exactly what we needed! Now according the the CPA association website the "IRA LLC" if it is set up as a single member LLC it will not pay any taxes. Does that sound right?

@Lydia Simeon I think what you are looking for maybe it is called the "CheckBook IRA LLC" Please see my post above this. I will be interested in what Dmitriy the expert think of this. I am not an expert just did some research and i had found out you don't really need any company for you to set this up, you just need a great local attorney who understands IRA issues in your state to draw up the paper to set up an LLC owned by your Self Directed IRA. After that you will have a checkbook in an FDIC insured place (no worries of extra fees or, that a custodian skips town with your money)

@Dmitriy Fomichenko I was wondering what is your take on this?

I just did some research on Single Member IRA LLCs and according to the CPA Association's and the IRS's websites:

If you PROPERLY set up a single member LLC Owned by your Self directed IRA, with an upfront cost of about a $1000-$2000, You can just take your LLC documents to your local bank and open an account for the LLC and you have the check book controll to purchase properties. Your will not have any custodian or other fees at all just you need to make sure your CPA files the yearly form to the IRS (not tax return because this LLC will pay no taxes but to inform the IRS of your IRA activities balances etc)

It seems like this is the way to go anyone who want to invest their IRA funds into real estate? Did I miss anything?

@Jon Holdman You are right, renting a better pump is probably a good idea IF there are any in the area.  When we had the flood all pumps, fans, dehumidifiers, were gone in our county and the counties around us too! I had to drive 60 miles each way to purchase all that stuff. 

@Brandon Turner  I am very sorry to hear what happened to you! Best thing to do is keep you cool so you can make the best decisions for your situation, and it could have been much worst! 

Let me send your way how we had dealt with almost identical situation to yours.

We had huge rain Hurricane, in Annapolis a few years ago! If we had waited for the pro.s for days we would have risk a saturation of everything which could have resulted to a "gut out rehab" .

Were very concerned of the timely solution of our flood problem, we decided to do it our self, this is how we did it:

(by the way we were back in business and move in ready in 7 days)

1, Go to Hardware store immediately get at least 2 pumps (make sure they hook up to your garden hoses) so you can get the water as far as possible and fast!

2, While water being  pumped out  go get $20 fans from Wallmart, HD etc one for each room and at least two for the living room (if larger). Also get 2- or 3 dehumidifier if you don't already own some. 

3. Once the water is all pumped out, to the point where you can walk around safely without stepping into little "lakes" than start the dehumidifiers and fans.  If the place has furnace house fan use that too! As it helps the dehumidifiers pickup water this much faster.Make sure you empty out the tanks for the dehumidifiers. At first they fill up every 4-5 hours. Than if will take 7-8 hours, than it will take 12 -15 hours. If you buy new dehumidifier you will be able to "adjust" humidity with it. When you adjust down the button to 30% and it hardly comes on you are done! At this point the place should feel dry and hot like a desert. 

4. After about the 6th day you can cut a few "probing holes" into the wall cavities in areas that you consider hard to dry, to see if you are satisfied with the progress. 

One more thing you want to make sure that as soon as you you have the dehumidifiers/fans started (after pumping) you maintain at least 85 -90 degree inside with windows closed. This will allows the wall cavities to give out all humidity much faster. 

For us the total cost of the flood incident was, under $500, i did not include the price of the new floor because we were about to replace that anyway. 

Good luck to you don't worry it will work out!

@Marcia Maynard  To treat your plumber and your staff for a professional massage does sound like a great idea, and a nice personal touch!