All Forum Posts by: John Duston

@Taylor Klein

CPA here. A few things going on there. The first or a business is that you can't depreciate or take tax write-offs or something that isn't in service. Your partner may have a slightly different situation if they're real estate professional. Since it's a construction, it may be worth looking into a cost segregation study to better utilize accelerated modes of depreciation.

Accountant to know the yearly costs. Insurance broker for options if you don't use one. Lawyer to set it up.

What states did you just buy your first two properties in?

Doesn't appear there is a vendors section for accountants. Probably because there is such huge variety between them. For example, I am a CA CPA who specializes in real estate and small/mid-sized businesses. I would have a completely different set of offerings from say a generalist EA.

If you have land trusts and syndications, you're out of Turbo Tax's league especially once you get this new retnal. 

 I would really try to stay with someone inside of CA as our tax laws are very different from federal. 

You'll have likely have to do a lot of networking or searching as there is likely a good bit of clean-up to do if you've been doing your own real estate agent and rentals. Ask lots of investors with who they have had good experiences with. I'm not familiar with that particular area but I know there are a lot of good CPAs on these forums.

Do you have partners? If it's just you, it shouldn't be different than the others you set up. Probably worth getting in contact with a lawyer.

3 month response time. That's a bar most CPA's could beat in the heat of tax season

Definitely look for CPAs that specialize in real estate or businesses. A lot of accountants who do a large volume of simpler returns at lower prices get too busy to give any customers care and advice. 

I'm just 45 minutes- an hour north of you and should know someone especially as my BNI Networking group is in the Thousand Oaks Oxnard area.

I'm in Santa Barbara and should know someone.

I second what @Basit Siddiqi said. The most important thing is to have a CPA that specializes in real estate. 2nd most important thing is to have them local as CA has a completely different tax code than other states. 

For your ADU, is that on your primary residence or in addition to a rental?

@John Duston

Whether to put the rentals into an entity is a lawyer and insurance broker question. I don't see it costing thousands to put them into an LLC or Corp. Whether to put it into a LLC or corporation is a CPA question