All Forum Posts by: Inessa Stysis

Hey all! I'm excited to post about this flip we just listed in Newhall, CA. It's the northeast part of LA and is a super cute, growing area. We bought this property off-market from a wholesaling company, sight unseen. We ended up doing a ton of work including roof, windows, AC and furnace upgrades, electrical upgrades, in addition to all of the cosmetic stuff. I had so much fun designing this one, as I've never done anything in a traditional style before. I'll share more details once we close, but would love to hear any feedback!

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sant...

@Jayson Cain is the mayor of LA real estate meetups. :) 

Hey Alexis, this is amazing that you're thinking about all of this at 20 - I'm jealous! Thinking about what I could tell my 20 year old self, my advice for you would be to start saving as much as possible. Don't sacrifice your whole life, you still should have fun and have experiences, but make it a priority to put money away every month into a high yield savings account. You could also start investing in online real estate platforms like Fundrise, but I would prioritize saving cash for your own real estate purchases. Then I would say build your credit responsibly. If you don't have a credit card, definitely get one. Go to your bank and ask them to sign up for a no or low annual fee starter card and use it wisely! 

As far as getting into your own rental property, if I was back to being a 20 year old I would do anything possible to get myself a house-hack. Find a lender and work on getting a pre-approval, or have the lender give you an action plan to get to that point. You're in a stage of life where you might be living with roommates anyway, so find a property where you can rent out rooms and live there yourself. 

If you're trying to work in real estate, that's another convo, but happy to chat about that as well!

Does anyone here make a conscious effort to connect with their local city council members / planning department members, any other local government officials to help their investing endeavors? Or does anyone have a story of how a connection has benefitted them?

Hey all! I am looking for any referrals to great deals on flooring, tile, appliances, etc. I’m not looking for stores and retailers, more so good connections the average consumer wouldn’t have.

I hope this makes sense, I had developed some great connections in Seattle for everything I needed, but now need to build my roster of vendors in LA! :)

First, yes you can generally take deductions on a personal return for real estate businesses. These would appear on a Schedule C (if it's a flip) or a Schedule E (if it's a rental). You cannot however take deductions for labor you do on your properties, unless you are also paying yourself income and reporting that (in the world of accounting, if there's a deduction there must be income somewhere else). You can deduct the cost of materials. You can also deduct mileage, but you are supposed to keep contemporaneous logs; if you're audited you must be able to provide these. 

These rules would be true for a business as well. Creating a business for real estate is more important on the liability than the tax side. 

@Annett Annett Joshua Tree, Palm Desert and Yucca Valley are becoming popular for vacation rentals and should have less restrictions (for the time being).

@Jade Smith without knowing too much about what your house looks like, and what area - you might not have to do all that much to make it an Airbnb opportunity. White paint, and fun decor can go a long way in making a listing pop on the platform. I partner with an Airbnb designer and manager who can run numbers and tell you what expected vacancy and cash flow will be if you’d like to find out.

As far as what to do with 200k, I think that’s plenty to make something happen in LA. You can flip properties with hard money to build up profits and then eventually use that profit to buy investment properties. I’m personally using that strategy myself right now.

@Carson Wright speaking from an accounting / tax perspective it’s generally not advisable to have property in an s Corp. Theres a number of reasons why that can get pretty technical including basis, distributions, and allocations to shareholders (if you have partners). Also you’d have to set up and pay payroll taxes from the company on your earnings or risk under reporting your taxes on your personal return.

@Colin L. I lived in Seattle and Tacoma for the last few years! (I do like Tacoma better in case that’s a question :) ). But Seattle proper is obviously a nice place to be. Note that a lot of homes in Seattle are really old (but really beautiful if you like craftsman style). If you’re buying a flip you may be buying a house where a lot of shortcuts were taken, as margins are so slim out there. And they usually demo all of the craftsman charm in favor of the standard modern farmhouse flip style which should be illegal. The con with buying an older home though, is they tend to have outdated layouts. If you’re buying something to live in for a while and make feel like a home I would suggest either a reputable new construction or invest in a project and be willing to wait out this current construction surge.