All Forum Posts by: Joseph Gisler

Thank you @Lance Lvovsky!!

Hi Emily!

I am a newbie too but have a good suggestion that has helped me begin to analyze deals. I created an Excel spreadsheet and began analyzing each zip code of my city for neighborhood, age of house, condition, square footage, rooms, baths, exterior building materials, slab vs. crawl space, garage, basement, etc. and then compared it to asking price, selling price, and time on the market.

I have been doing so for about 7 months and have analyzed over 260 homes in my area that have been sold. I have started determining what sells a house in the area but more importantly what I want in a home. When I started this journey, I wanted a fixer upper that I was going to live in but over the course of doing this, I have learned a lot about my area but also that I don't want a fixer upper, even though I am super handy. I want something move in ready that can begin cash flowing immediately, I also have started noticing small opportunities other may miss like additional entrances, rooms that can be converted into additional bedrooms.

This excel sheet has been a tremendous help these past 7 months and I think could be very valuable to you, you won't learn it all, I still have a lot of questions that won't be answered by this sheet but it has by far been the most valuable thing I have done towards my goal of buying my first house this year.

I hope this helps!!

I am preparing to buy a single family home to live in one room and rent out the other bedrooms. A question my father brought up to me pertains to depreciation and how recognizing rental income of a primary residency effects that depreciation and I did not have a clear answer for him, soooo here it goes!

Basically, is it better and even legal to not claim the income made off bedrooms in my primary residency as RENTAL income by not putting that income in a separate "housing account" and instead depositing directly into my checking account as if it was a side hustle of some sort? Will this give me an advantage in depreciating the full value of the house instead of the just the portion I use?

What about expense deductions and my debt-to-income ratio for future rentals, how can doing this effect those? I want to do everything by the books, nothing shady but also fully take advantage of various tax optimization strategies.

Thank you for any help one can give!

I am getting close to buying my first investment property which will most likely be a single-family in which I will live in one room and rent out the others. Has anyone had experience with bumping up the rent by lets say $70-100 than average rent prices and including utilities into rent? My thought process is by averaging the monthly utilities cost and adding it on top of what average rent is, I can eliminate a bill I have to charge my roommates but I am afraid people won't even look at my advertisement to realize utilities are included due to a much higher rent price. Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions!

In Raleigh, NC I believe there is a city ordinance that limits the amount of unrelated individuals living in a house to four people. My question though, does overnight lodging (eg. Airbnb) count towards unrelated individuals living in a house or could this be in excess of the four living there?

For example, if I were to buy a five bedroom house, live in one room, rent out three to tenants, and have sufficient parking, could I still use the fifth room for Airbnb and be in compliance with the law?

Any thoughts or experiences will be greatly appreciated! 

@Mike Price Thank you very much!

Hi @Mike Price! Thanks for chatting with me. I understand that, what I am asking though is can I apply for a loan based off the salary before my pay switches to commission and still qualify? Or will they call the loan once it switches to commission?

I am not trying to be sneaky with the bank or anything, I am just wondering if anyone else has had experience with this situation.

I am graduating college at the end of this month and I have accepted an awesome job with an amazing company to begin my career! This job is typically 100% commission, but being that it is not an entry level position and I am an entry level candidate, they have offered me a decent sized salary to supplement me until I can establish a foundation in my area. This salary will continue until I believe 3 months of commission sales surpass the salary payout every month in which I will transition over to 100% commission. My research is telling banks typically want 2 years of commission before they count it towards your income, does anyone have experience with this and if so, can I get pre-approved for a mortgage based off that salary offer even if it will go away eventually and replaced by commission?

@Marlen Weber@Marlen Weber Thank you very much! 

I am graduating college at the end of this month and I have accepted an awesome job with an amazing company to begin my career! This job is typically 100% commission, but being that it is not an entry level position and I am an entry level candidate, they have offered me a decent sized salary to supplement me until I can establish a foundation in my area. This salary will continue until I believe 3 months of commission sales surpass the salary payout every month in which I will transition over to 100% commission. My research is telling banks typically want 2 years of commission before they count it towards your income, does anyone have experience with this and if so, can I get pre-approved for a mortgage based off that salary offer even if it will go away eventually and replaced by commission?