All Forum Posts by: Kyler J Sloan

@Leslie Anne Morris Thanks for the reference! Since I have one STR at this point, I am not sure if I can justify the 5 K investment. When I get some more properties, I will for sure reach out.

From what I can tell, I stand to save the most if this income is active, since I have a 120 K W-2 salary, and very little STR income since I just listed it last month.

In turn, there will be a substantial loss, since I have been renovating since last year and there is little rental income to deduct from this year. 

This is why I was really hoping to qualify it as active; if I can, I will save 100 percent of my W-2 taxes back this year -- would I not? 

Is there any way that STR rental income can be considered "active" from a tax standpoint?

I spent a lot of my time working on renovations myself, and manage it myself, but I have not manually tracked the time invested. 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts. 

It can be a bit frustrating trying to gain an understanding of the tax system when all questions issued to that effect receive the proverbial response: "Consult your tax professional".

Well, my "tax professional" is busy, and cannot possibly satisfy every question I have.

Anyone have good written resources you can recommend? 

Thanks in advance. 

This will be the first year that I get any tax benefits for the work I have done on my first rental, and I wanted to understand the very basics/fundamentals to determine how much I might get back. 

In my profit/loss statement, are the costs which exceed profits deducted from my W-2 Income? 

If so, I should get virtually all of my taxes back this year. 

Note: renovations started in 2020, but could not be reflected last year, because I had not begun renting the place. 

Thanks in advance for your feedback. 

@Mason Hickman Doesn't the smell change become an issue if you have carpet? -- and of course the furniture, blankets, etc. could acquire the smell. However, if you have wood floors, I imagine that the smell change becomes less of an issue. 

This is regarding a question re-hashed many times over on these forums, but I wanted to ask it again in the context of this property. 

I have a 2 Bed, 2 Bath property with wood floors, so the main concern with dogs is how they will damage my Lazyboy couches, or how they tax my cleaner. 

So far I have had good luck and mindful guests, but is an open pet policy with a 50 dollar pet fee a good idea?

The cabin is on top of a private mountain with plenty of acreage, so I wanted to allow pets since they will have open range. 

However, I suspect they will really wear down my couches over time. 

Thanks for any advice! 

Thanks to everyone. I guess it was more common than I thought. Some people are adamant about never offering discounts. Right now I could actually use the shorter consecutive bookings because the listing is new and I need the reviews. 

I was curious if anyone has considered giving guests currently booked a couple of days a discounted extension to their reservation in order to fill vacancies? 

For example, if one guest books FRI-SUN, another from the following TUE-THUR, and a third from SAT-SUN. 

On the one hand, I would think the guest would simply extend if they have any inclination to do so, as most have plans set before-hand and don't have the flexibility to simply extend their reservation. That, at least, is my intuition. 

Then again, if they are a remote worker / student, it might be very convenient. 

I am tempted to increase my minimum to 3 days because I keep getting holes in my calendar. 

My cleaner says her fee will go up 50 dollars when I add a hot tub for its maintenance. 

This seems far too high considering the upkeep is not that extensive. 

What amount would be reasonable? 

Thanks!

Thanks everyone. I'll start comparing bids for each project. I think the best route would be to optimize it as it is, and buy my next property before starting this project.