All Forum Posts by: Jason Phillips

I'm using Minoan to furnish a luxury STR and it's been incredible, and I am actively trying to find a way to better leverage their service. Yes, it's true that you might be able to find a product you need at a greater discount when a brand like Wayfair or CB2 is having a sale, but I've found that they truly do offer superior discounts at scale, even considering the fee.

What I find to be most valuable: Ease of use, cost-savings and efficiency and here's what I mean: If using an interior designer to furnish your rental, they will hand you a list of supplies + furniture to buy and what I was able to do with Minoan is upload that list as a CSV file and then they come back with a quote of all of the items they can fulfill along with their respective discount. My EA and I were able to validate that the discounts provided were better than anything we can find on our own and if you think about it: Instead of going directly to CB2, Wayfair, Rejuvenation, West Elm, etc., you can just buy it all in one swoop through Minoan. 

So yeah, my experience has been outstanding and they customer service has been exemplary. I specifically want to call out one of their Senior Accounts Associate, Charlotte Cunningham, who helped me through the process on my first purchase as I needed to buy a sizable amount of furniture quickly and she was able to help me make moves quickly...and didn't make me feel bad whatsoever when I pulled back a few items at the last minute I was able to find them cheaper elsewhere. Left me feeling like a basically have a retail/fulfillment person on my team so I'm a big fan and would recommend giving them a shot, especially if you're in a similar position as I was: Needing to furnish an STR quickly and cost-efficiently. 

Hi Steven - Sorry for the delay, but I am an investor with Goodegg (Hotel Fund and Wealth Fund II) and I have nothing but praise. Great people, intuitive platform, get their K1s out on time and returns have met expectations...one of the reasons I am invested in two funds at this point as the first investment was really to test the waters and validate I was a good fit. 

Hello and happy holidays! I have an SFH in Rockridge under contract and the electrical system will need to be updated. The outdated panel and breaker sooner than later. Does anyone have an electrician that they like working with and are willing to recommend? Many thanks in advance.

I'm with you on San Leandro. Great access all around the bay, quant little homes!

@Anna Strausbaugh This is awesome. Thanks for sharing and congrats!

Thank you @Greg Scott for the sound advice; I agree!

And many thanks to @Ashish Acharya, that explanation was super helpful as you perfectly explained whether or not this would be a start-up expense or a cost capitalized as part of the cost of the investment or deducted as investment expenses. Appreciate you spelling that out, made a lot of sense. Thank you so much again. 

This may be obvious, but I couldn't confirm in my NOLO deduction guide so asking here: I know I can write off the advertising costs associated with advertising my rental property once I own them, but can I deduct the advertising costs related to finding and acquiring my rental property?

For example, if I want to spend some money advertising to find my next rental (let's say via a direct mail campaign), can I write that off as a start-up or operating expense if the goal of the campaign is to acquire an off-market property to turn into a rental?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Thank you @Brian Garlington!!

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $653,000
Cash invested: $75,000

Purchased back in 2015, now a rental.