All Forum Posts by: Jacob A.

Chris Pizzulo Welcome! I'm just down the road in Raleigh and I am closing on my first flip next week! With that said you can take my advice with a grain of salt but be sure you are factoring in all of your holding costs such as interest, taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. Also, be sure to factor in the real estate agent comissions that your realtor will be taking off the back end as well as any closing costs on both ends. Other items such as staging, inspections, permit fees, etc may also need to be considered. You may have already taken these into account but all I see that you have listed above is the repair costs. It's all of those hidden costs that can get you! Best of luck!

Michael J. I was just making the point that yes you will have to pay a 15.3% SE tax, but you do get a little bit of savings by being able to deduct a portion of it on line 27 of your 1040. So this will be a direct reduciton of your taxable income. If you pull up a copy of a 2012 1040 form, and look at line 27 you can see what I'm talking about. You can also pull up a schedule SE if you want to see how it's calculated. Any decent tax software should calculate this for you.

Darren Sager I will definately try my best to keep pictures updated. I don't plan on doing any of the work along the way as I work full time as a CPA so time is limited for me. My dad is actually a licensed GC and he is going to help supervise a little bit, but I don't want to rely on him to do the rehab as he is in full on retirement mode. But it's nice to have a him around in case something goes wrong!

David Beard Thanks for the kind words! Yes you understood correctly, my contractor and realtor are a husband/wife team and their specialties are working with investors like myself. In the area there are comps with and without garages selling, but to alleviate that we are really stepping it up in the finishing department using nicer finishes and framing in the carport to add a 4th bedroom. My plan is to go a little above and beyond the other houses in the area in hopes to make up for the lack of the garage. I think I should be ok, but only time will tell!

While I wait to close next week, here are w few pictures for anyone still following the blog:

Shes a beauty isn't she??!?! Anyways we have a pretty good plan for the interior but I'm trying to come up with some ideas to make the house pop on the outside and give it some good curb appeal. I know we will be planting some kind of vegetation to the left of the front door under the windows to break up all the brick. I'm also toying with the idea or painting the brick a lighter color. It's rough now but the bones are very solid and it will be amazing in about 6-7 weeks.

Aren't we forgetting the fact that half of the SE tax is also taken as an above the line deduction on the first page of your 1040. I like to focus on the positives!

Thank you sir.

By the way Brandon Turner or Joshua Dorkin can I get one of you guys to move this post out of RE success stories? You are going to jinx me before I even close on the house!!!

Jimmy Hong I'll most deifnately put up some pictures here shortly. Stay tuned......

By the way the 4th bedroom addon is an existing carport that we are going to frame in and finish.