All Forum Posts by: Julieanne Zenz

For my closings I use Jim Cook out of StCharles. He has done multiple transactions for me. Good follow though, easy to reach, reasonably priced, and an incredibly nice guy.

On my last acquisition I used Shawn Little with Dynamic Inspections. 

Scott, do you invest locally? If so, there is a landlord meeting at the St Charles police dept on the second Tuesday of every month, 10am. You are welcome to join us. Feel free to email me if you would like more info. 

Thank you Ashish.  I manage, rent and renovate all of our holdings myself as well as hold my real estate license.  But, I appreciate your clarification as others reading this post may not recognize the significance of that nuance. 

Thank you, everyone, for your responses.  So, it seems that I should, in fact, change my status to a RE professional as all our previous losses will not simply disappear and all future losses will be able to be deducted.  I appreciate the clarifications.

Can anyone please clarify this- I have read and heard multiple times that if you spend more than half your work hours in RE you may classify yourself as an RE proffesional.  Of course, the benefit of this is to be able to take your losses (if you earn more than $150k)  instead of deferring them.  Here is my question- we have had real estate investments for over 10 years and have had to defer the losses until the property is sold.  I am now spending more than 50% of my work hours in RE but was told not to convert my employment status because I would loose those losses that had been being deferred.  Is this correct?  Anyone have any insight or suggestions?  Thank you in advance.

Jeff, thank you for sharing the 7 year figure. Can you show me the math?  Why is it that 7 years is the sweet spot for resale?  I've heard that before but have not seen the acutual calculations and would love to understand the data behind that strategy. 

What parameters do you use when deciding if you should continue to hold a property as a rental in your portfolio vs if you should sell it?  Here is my scenario and I would appreciate any insight/suggestions:

I have a property that I've owned for 2 years.  All in cost is $170k.  Current rental rate is $2000/m, less $4,500 property taxes, this yields a net of $19,500/year (I do not have any other holding costs) and a return of 11.4% return on investment.  If I were to sell it there is a potential for earning a net profit of $90k.  This means it would take 4.6 years of rental income (assuming no major expenses) to yield the equivalent profit of the sale.  My question is what is the magic number to determine when one should continue to hold an asset vs when one should sell?  

In the past I have used 3 years as my determining factor (meaning, if the rental income in 3 years would be equal to or greater than the profit of the sale I should continue to hold the property) but have no hard data to justify this parameter?  If anyone can explain to me what the optimum ratio of rental income to sale profit is I would appreciate the insight.  Thank you in advance.  Julieanne

Thank you Dave.  I did find their info on another thread and spoke with them last night.  They were incredibly helpful. I agree.  I will most likely sell the property and simply move my funds to the US.  Now I am in the process of searching for a CPA/tax preparer to help me minimize the impact of the depreciation tax as well as prepare my company's annual tax work. I've been reading old posts, but am always interested if anyone wants to recommend another CPA/tax preparer?

I reside in the western suburbs of Chicago (Geneva, IL). I am in need of an accountant/tax preparer (preferably specializing in real estate).  I am selling an over seas property and have realized that according to the irs website the tax code will not allow a 1031 exchange with non US properties.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I am trying to figure out how to minimize our capital gains tax on the profit.  Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.  Thank you.  Julieanne