All Forum Posts by: Lisa Mason

@Brandon Halley Great! I'm in town and sent you a private message- looking forward to meeting you!

I realized I missed a tag:
@Brandon Halley I lurked around a few of your other posts on BP as well and would love to meet up if you have the time- specifically interested in how your flippings been going, your knowledge of the Durango market, and if you ever work with private investors (e.g. me) to acquire properties/flips.  We have all our rentals in MN, but our permanent home is in Tucson, AZ, where I serially flip our primary residences over the course of 1-3 years (the slow flip! ;).  Sorry to reiterate, but if you didn't read my above post, I'm in town for June and we're hoping to move up to Durango in the next 1-3 years and explore investment opportunities in the more immediate future.  Do you still use Jeff Reynolds for your realtor?

@Alex Whittow
Well met! We're in Durango just through 06/25 but are trying to relocate here (family of four). We live in Tucson, AZ currently, but hold 9 different investment properties in the Twin Cities, MN area.  We've lived all over; and I actually started my RE investment journey in Fort Collins, CO.
We're also interested in buy-and-hold properties for cash flow (whether short term or long term rentals), and the 1-3 year goal would be to buy an investment property in Durango that we could 1031 exchange into and owner occupy after renting it for 1+ year(s) to eliminate all the deferred taxes accrued from the 1031. whew, that was a mouthful :)
Anyway, I'm not probably a great local resource for you, but if I could offer *you* coffee/lunch, I'd love to meet up and see how you've found the last year to be, your experiences, opinions, etc.

@Jens Nielsen

@Jens NielsenLooks like I'll just miss the next meetup, unfortunately (we live 06/26), but I'll keep it in mind for future visits- thanks for sharing!

@Mike Bozich

The coffee offer extended to you as well (or anyone reading this thread :).  I'd love to get anyone's opinions/strategies about this market, and I'm happy to share my knowledge of the Tucson, AZ area (where we currently live), and the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area (my holy grail investing region) if that's of interest to anyone.  Thanks for the consideration!  As a reminder I'm only in town until 06/26/2021, but we hope to return here throughout this year and next.

Fred Dey, 

Thank you for all the advice. Yes, it does state in the lease that they are responsible. I also include in each welcome packet a step by step for how to call the power company and report an outage as well as how to reset a flipped breaker.

This tenant has been short term so far and has had issues paying rent every month, and makes excessive requests (in frequency and in "reasonable-ness").

The tenant is not responsible for deciding if a handyman is needed, but if one is called out and it isnt a landlord responsibility, shouldn't that go back to the tenant? I.E. clogged toilet due to large items

Not sure how to update my original post, but for clarity:

Dan V: the handyman was called by me after tenant confirmed breaker reset was not working. I live in the same state, but see no reason to drive over and double check tenant : either a repair is needed (I.E. handyman needed) or not, (I.E. tenant charge). I also have a baby at home, so middle of the night emergency calls aren't my thing :)

James: good point. I thought about waiting to see if anything else happens, but there was a neighborhood wide power outage, so that is the most likely explanation.

Lauren: also a good idea. This has already been done for another service call on her stove last month.

Tim C: there were no repairs needed or done. Furnace was working.

Greetings, and thanks in advance for any advice.

So, I had a tenant with an emergency- she got home from work and her furnace fan was not blowing. We live in MN and it's winter so heat is a necessity.

It's is a tenant responsibility to flip breakers and check for power outages before contacting maintenance, and the tenant says they tried flipping the breaker. The handyman came out to service the furnace and found it in working order when he arrived. Tenant said they flipped the breaker again right before the handyman arrived and it started working. Handyman did a full diagnostic and found no issues. Concluded a power surge caused the breaker to flip.

Who is responsible for this service call, tenant or landlord?

Thanks for the input Gary.  I was planning to use the standard (not simple), but I wasn't aware that you couldn't do a carry-forward with the simple.  Good to know.

Is it standard practice to enter a home office deduction on a Schedule C when my properties are on Schedule E?  Or should I just enter it as an "other" expense on Schedule E like the NOLO book suggests?  Anyone know?

Rob, 

I am definitely only trying to take deductions I am entitled to.  I believe you are incorrect in saying that landlords with "only" rental income cannot take the home office deduction.  A landlord can be considered to run a business if the work they do is regular and they actively participate in managing their rentals.

Every Landlord's Tax Deduction Guide has an entire chapter dedicated to the home office deduction for individual landlords, and with 5 star reviews on Amazon and updates every year, I find it hard to believe the book is 100% wrong about this.

I am not trying to be argumentative; I'm simply trying to get to the bottom of this and figure out how to enter this home office deduction. Indeed, when I got H&R Block advice, they said I could not take the deduction. However, that goes against what is in the book I have, and against what lots of information I've found out there says. I definitely actively participate in my rentals, and if I need to become a SP or LLC to prove it, I can work towards that too.

I've sort of got this question floating out on another thread, but I want to directly ask:

As a landlord with 3 rental properties I maintain a dedicated home office. This is the first year I will be claiming the deduction. I'm not a SP, an LLC, and agent, or a broker. I'm simply a landlord that is actively involved in managing these rentals as a business. I'm confident in my ability to take the deduction; I'm just confused about where/how to take it.

Every Landlord's Tax Deduction Guide says to claim it on line 18 of my Sch E as an "other" expense and say "Business use of home".

Others I've spoken to say to use Schedule C, but since my rental income is all on Schedule E, how will that work?

I'm working with a net operating loss for my rentals this year, so putting the deduction in Sch E doesn't seem right because the home office should not offset ordinary income.  Help?
Thanks!

Alright, thanks to both of you for your replies. 

It seems like the tax guide I have may be wrong in that in suggests to report as "business use of home" on Line 18 of your Sch E.  Like you both said though, the home office deduction cannot be used to offset normal income, so that can't be right.

Is it standard practice then to have all my rentals on Schedule E, and then have my home office deduction on Schedule C?  Thanks!