All Forum Posts by: Lisa Graesser

Hi @andreyfeygin, maybe you can help me. We are new investors and have purchases 2 homes in the same area in a retirement community that we rent out monthly. Since at this point I have always done my own taxes on turbo tax. I thinl I can manage this with just 2 rentals and some education. I have read some books on the subject and one mentioned that once you are in business and purchase another rental in the same area then that second house is considered part of you existing business and expenses to get that house ready for rental are considered expenses of the business, not start up costs for a new business. So my question is, are the costs we incurred to get the 2nd house ready to be rented (painting, repairs, supplies, ultilities, maintenance) prior to the house being available for rent, deductible in the current year as expenses or have to be added to the cost basis of the house.  I appreciate any help or reference to the answer.

Are your vacation rentals all in the same area? Are the costs to get each rental ready considered part of your existing business and are those costs prior to renting each VR considered expenses in your current business or do you have to add the expenses incurred to the cost basis of each VR that you buy .

Hi @Matthew Mckinivan , not sure where the comment about students living at home or with others was geared at. It's definitely not because there is no housing available and more to do with not being able to afford the housing on their own that is available. I will say I may have made a gloomy statement of rent coming down because I have had a very nice townhouse available for a couple of months in North Buffalo, and thought I was going to have to bring the price down because there is so much competition, but I was able to rent it today to some incoming medical residents. I do think having the medical campus downtown is definitely an advantage for drawing medical personnel from the suburbs into the city. So I hope you are right and the rents continue to increase.

Hi Donnell, 

I live in Buffalo and have been watching the downtown market the last couple of years. Real estate market is definitely inflated at this point, especially downtown, near the new medical campus, around the Elmwood strip and area around Hertel Ave. You may still get some deals if you go to the far West side, which seems to be possibly up a coming, or the east side. My personal opinion is there are so many new apartments available currently, that it is going  start to bringing the rental rates down. The downtown area has come a long way, but I don't know if there are that many people moving to Buffalo to keep up with the available housing. Glad you are thinking of coming back to your hometown, and if there are enough of you that do that, maybe all these available apartments will be filled. 

Lisa G