All Forum Posts by: Jack Faysash

Has anyone in the Tampa area taken on a bathroom addition project recently? Wondering what the going rate is and if anyone has a contractor they’d suggest. Location is in the south Tampa area.

Primary Residence - No

The side of the duplex being rented - Yes

If you live in the Houston area, Michael Plaks is the number one guy. 

I'd highly encourage investing what you have and start working as much as you can to be able to have a stable source of income to qualify for a loan. I bonds are a very safe investment and are at a historically high rate. If you want to take some more risk, I'd suggest diversifying through mutual funds and historically well performing stocks. I use fidelity for purchasing mutual funds and stocks, but there are other options out there.

Your LLC would still have to do one of the following with real property:
• Develops or redevelops it.
• Constructs or reconstructs it.
• Acquires it.
• Converts it.
• Rents or leases it.
• Operates or manages it.
• Brokers it.

I'm not sure your job description/LLC fit any of these, unless you think there may be an angle that I'm missing.

I'd suggest claiming the de minimis safe harbor election for each piece of furniture. Each piece of furniture must be under $2500, or under $5000 with an applicable financial statement. The same holds true for the hot tub, unless it cost more than $5k, on which case you would have to depreciate. I'd highly suggest meeting with a tax professional to ensure you claim these correctly.

Hey John, to qualify as a real estate professional, you must provide more than one half of your total service (total hours worked in a year) in real property trades or business in which you materially participate, AND perform more than 750 hours of services during the tax year in real property business activities, which include: property development, redevelopment, construction, reconstruction, acquisition, conversion, rental, operation, management, leasing, or brokerage services. Don’t count personal services you perform as an employee in real property trades or businesses unless you are a 5% owner of your employer. You are a 5% owner if you own (or are considered to own) more than 5% of your employer's outstanding stock, or capital or profits interest.

Assuming you aren't a 5% owner of the investment shop you work at, I don't believe you would qualify based on the information provided.

Are you planning on using the car solely for business purposes, or also for personal use? To even consider taking section 179 on the vehicle, it must be used at least 50% for business purposes. If you use the vehicle more than 50% in the first year of service, but use it less than 50% in a following year, you are required to recapture any excess depreciation.

If you plan to use the vehicle for more than 50% business use, you would not need a separate business entity to claim the deduction, you can claim it on schedule C. I highly suggest meeting with a tax professional to make sure you figure the correct amount to deduct if you plan to go this route.

Taken directly from the IRS website:

Depreciation – Allowances for exhaustion, wear and tear (including obsolescence) of property. You begin to depreciate your rental property when you place it in service. You can recover some or all of your original acquisition cost and the cost of improvements by using Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization (to report depreciation) beginning in the year your rental property is first placed in service, and beginning in any year you make improvements or add furnishings.

Generally property is considered placed in service when it is ready and available for a specific use, regardless of whether or not it is actually used at the time. For example, a house purchased for use as rental property is placed in service when it is ready and available to rent, even if it is not actually rented at that time.

I moved to the area in August, and have definitely noticed a decrease in home prices in the area. A lot of the houses for sale in my neighborhood have had the signs sitting outside for a couple months. I’m guessing things will continue to stay slow here throughout the year.