All Forum Posts by: Joseph Baiera

Very Nice!  Great Work!

I took a look at your numbers. Are the tenants paying their own utilities?  I see you have allocated a very small amount towards utilities yearly. Also, I see that you have a section labeled interest. Are those your yearly mortgage costs with interest included or just the interest? If the section is labeled correctly and you owe 175k in interest every year then it means your principal payment has not been added to your calculations. If the section is labeled incorrectly and it does include your principal then you my friend are kicking some serious ***.

Total Noob.

Scott Great advice. Just a few more questions.

1.  If the duplex requires a new roof and I'm living in half of it, can I only write off half of the total square footage of the roof?

2. If I write off a vehicle does that mean I cannot use it for personal use?  I was going to write off my car which will mostly be used to commute to my day job.  If I don't write off the car do I just write off mileage and gas when I use the vehicle to do maintenance on the property.

3. If I buy a lawn mower for the property can I write that off? Just curious if that is okay since I will be living in half of the property?

4. Finally, What if I sign a contract with my own LLC and make monthly payments to my LLC for my half of the duplex. Then could I write off paint and upgrades for my half of the duplex?

I'm asking because I don't need the property to make money for another 20 years. I don't plan to buy more properties for another 5 years and even then I don't plan to buy them as an LLC but rather as an individual and then transfer them into the LLC. I just want to use the duplex to cover what would be my rent, to be able to write off depreciation if luck is not in my favor and I also want to use the business to write off expenses I would normally have in maintaining a normal home.

Joe

My wife and I both work full time and are looking to house hack for our first home with plans to purchase more rentals in the future and build a steady income for retirement. Before starting we were hoping to get some insight from people who know the pro's and con's of the business.

1. What type of business? I was thinking of purchasing a duplex and transferring ownership to an LLC.

2. If I purchase a duplex, can I write off expenses against my working income? For example, I made 50k at my day job and the income from my duplex for the year was 10k.  Total income for the year 60k. Can I then write off 30k in expenses towards fixing up the duplex?

3. Can I write off the purchase of a vehicle?