All Forum Posts by: John Brito

@Dave Poeppelmeier Thanks for the reply! Yes there are alot of old doorways they will have to undercut. Decisions decisions! I appreciate your input and quick response. I will update everyone once I make the final decision. 

Congrats @Tyler L. . I have a lot of friends up there and it commands good rents. Still not happy you guys stole our minor league baseball team from Pawtucket though haha. Good luck with everything! sounds like a good deal and you will be saving a lot of money. 

@Scott M. you replied so it worked haha. I am an engineer by trade so I dont mind learning but I also know some people DYI and end up doing a terrible job. I may give it a try honestly or see if the contractor will tackle the kitchen for me which is the hardest part. Thanks for the encouragement. 

@Benjamin Burgoyne I apperciate the response! the flooring will be total of 715 sqft so roughly 1.5 a sq ft which is a good deal.   I was planning on using quarter rounds at first but realized it was pretty easy to pull the trim as it was not the original trim but added rouhgly 5 years ago . Thanks for the tip on undercutting and leaving the gap. I will for sure have that done. 

Hello BP,

     I am house hacking a 3 unit- which is currently vacant as I paint the entire apartment Agreegable Grey SW (clearly the go to these days). I am doing the painting bymyself in a 800 sqft apartment and should be done this weekend. I plan to rent the unit by Oct 1st and I am showing it with the floors and painting not done yet. 

My question is should I try to install LVP Lifeproof floors from HD by myself with the help of some friends on a couple days or should I pay someone 1,100 to install the floors for me? I am going to pop out all the trim and pull the carpet etc for the contactor. I just want to know if I should be trying to install this myself and save the $1,100 and also learn how to install LVP or should I just pay for someone to do it and get the job done correctly? 

AS an FYI I can borrow the tools needed from my brother but I have not done much DYI besides painting. I also live in the unit above the apartment and I work from home so my schedule is flexible. 

Thanks!

Hello,

     I am looking for a home inspector for a condo under contract in Queens, NY. Far Rockaway to be exact. 

@Nicholas Aiola Thank you! Yea I am still new in the game and I am figuring out like most things people only tell you want benefits them in the end. I should follow all tax laws and my CPAs advice and not the loan officer who just wants to make sure he gets a deal in the end. 

Hello @Eamonn McElroy thank you for the response and cutting to the point! You are correct it would not make sense to take a stance to please my lenders and potentially not honestly benefit my DTI as I think I will be in a good place regardless of my tax return. I luckily did not submit the return and told my CPA to hold off so I could understand what was going on a bit further.

Hello @Michael Plaks Thank you for the detailed description! This was my first time doing my real estate taxes and it seemed very counterintuitive trying to balance lending and taxes. I am going to take your advice and speak with my CPA to see the best route. I need to make sure I place my expenses on my return as it would not make sense to place them on my returns in later years. This was very helpful as I was confused and my tax professional and mortgage lender didn't seem to have a clear answer on the route I should be taking. 

Hello @Nicholas Aiola 

I purchased my first 3 unit in Dec 19 and I am in the process of looking for my next unit since my first was not with an FHA loan but home possible and I am going to use FHA in a better location for the next one.

I am doing my taxes this year and my CPA included all my rental income on 2 of the 3 units and included depreciation but after discussions with my loan officer and others, it seems like not taking major expenses is beneficial in the beginning of the real estate journey to show positive income on your rental properties. My current DTI is roughly 27% as my only debt is my mortgage. For DTI I can not use my current unit in the calculations but I can use 75% of purchased units rents. so if I do this I think my DTI would jump up to roughly 36% with the new FHA purchase.

So my question is do you think it is better to not take major expenses at the beginning of your real estate journey and just pay taxes on the gains in order to make your DTI look attractive as this seems to be an issue with some investors as they gain more real estate. Currently with no expenses added I would have to pay roughly 2,500 in taxes this due to rental income year but my accountant said that if you take expenses you get roughly 27% of the total expenses taken out so for every $1,000 you spend you can deduct 270 from your tax bill. Just trying to see what others' experience has been on this and is it worth it to pay the taxes in the beginning and then take more deductions after you build up your portfolio and have been showing that your units do increase your overall income.

Thank you for any input! I understand you will not be giving me tax advice but just from your experience I want to make sure I approach this correctly and I don't regret saving a little money now and then end up messing up future purchases such as in this blog post below

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...