All Forum Posts by: Jacob A.

I bought a house in 2016 and moved into it in July 2016. I had somethings to fix in the old house and I finally listed it for rent only in Apr 2017. Which is the year I converted the property to a rental? 2016 or 2017? 

And to estimate the building portion to be depreciated, can I use the county's appraisal of building and land in 2016/2017 and apply the % of building to total value to the amount I bought the property for?

Thanks.

Have a question regarding mileage. Is it ok to rely on Google Timeline to find the dates I made trips to my rental property?

I'm also in a similar situation. Can we have names of specific lenders and what would be a ball park increase in interest rates over a conventional loan in a personal name? Assume good credit with scores over 700, home value of 267K and loan of 200K.

Any ways to hide ownership?

I think I came across this idea on BP but cannot find that post. Basically to protect from lawsuits one creates a property management company as an LLC. You rent the property to the LLC and the LLC sublets it to the tenant. The advantages are:

1. Property remains in your name. Helps in getting financing and insurance.

2. If sued, the LLC does not have any assets. Setting the property as an LLC puts at least one property at risk.

3. Avoid having to set up multiple LLC for each property.

4. Avoid having to do any title transfers.

Any disadvantages?

In 2016 I bought a new house and moved out on July 16, 2016. I decided to rent out my old house rather than sell and just before I left I refinanced the old house with a 15 year loan. The old house had some issues that needed to be fixed and it took me a while to get it done. I finally placed an ad only on Apr 27, 2017 and rented it out a month later on May 26. I'm curious about how I would recognize the following expenses:

1. Depreciation. Do I start recognizing it in May 2017 onwards for 27.5 years or have I lost the depreciation from Aug 2016 - Apr 2017?

2. Refinance costs.  Same as above for 15 years. Do I put this under Other Interest or Other?

3. Am I allowed to recognize any expense for the old house in 2016?

4. Utilities, interest and taxes - Do I record anything from  Aug 2016 to Apr 2017?

5. Repair expenses such a dishwasher and plumbing leaks.

6. Replaced carpet in Dec 2016? Do I add that to the basis of the property?

7. Insurance was paid just before I listed the property. Can I include that?

8. On my HUD statement line 1112 I have "Escrow Fee to Title Company" and line 1113 "Courier to Title Company". Do I add them to the basis?

Thanks. Now need to look into whether I would have to pay tax on her 401K and who should recognize the rental income/loss on taxes.

If we don't set up a business,  would we be able to escape inheritance taxes by purchasing the house in both our names? 

Apologies if this is the wrong forum. My mom is based in PA and so is subject to inheritance taxes. She wants to buy some property near me in TX and she suggested we put her and my name on the property so to avoid any inheritance tax. I might chip in with 20% of the capital. Questions:

1. Is the above legal and possible?

2. If we don't go this route and just buy it in our names, can we still avoid inheritance taxes?

3. What type of business should I set up? At a state level or federal?

4. Is it possible to get a loan in the name of the business? I have other rental properties in my wife and my name.

5. If we don't open a business, how do we recognize the rental incomes or losses on our tax return? I file jointly with my wife and she files jointly with my step-dad.