All Forum Posts by: Lucas Hammer

So I bought a 2-unit building that I'll be house-hacking while I work on the second unit that I'm living in. I had a few questions come up over the last week while I'm trying to get paperwork together and build my system for keeping everything organized.

1. For anything that benefits both units (yard work, maintenance, etc.), I've been tracking the mileage and I'm assuming that I can deduct half of it on the first unit since the other half is for the unit I'm living in that hasn't been placed in service yet. I'm assuming that the other half of the mileage can be deducted once the second unit has been placed in service, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer on if mileage can be included in start-up costs.

2. Can I deduct the first $5,000 in start-up costs once I do place the second unit into service or does it all get added to the basis and depreciated? There's conflicting evidence on the first $5,000 for a "passive" real estate investment online and I couldn't tell if the $5,000 rule is only in effect for "active" investments.

3. I have a detached garage that needs some repair. It's not dedicated to a single unit and can be used by both units. Would I deduct half of the repairs current year for the first unit and add the rest of the repair amount to the basis of the second unit for once it's been placed in service? Since it isn't a part of either unit and isn't exclusively used, I wasn't sure if I could put that all on one or another unit or if it'd need to be split as well.

Thanks, and hopefully my questions are all coherent enough!

Yeah, there was no original walkthrough, no proof of condition, and no terms related to moving out. I'll just call them tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks for the advice everyone!

@Phil Earley, will definitely be doing something like that for mine, but the lack of maintenance and the fact that I never signed a lease with them is leaving me to not accept their move-out terms. I'm just going to call them and tell them what I will and won't do before moving out.

Okay, sounds good. As of now they just want us to fill out their specific "Notice to Vacate" form and they're asking us to sign a list of fees for cleaning, but we're just not going to do that part. There's been a water leak from the unit above us for almost a year and so drywall and paint chips have all fallen behind the fridge and I'm just not cleaning that up, so I'll be back to update within the month.

So I'm a renter and a landlord currently. We'll be house-hacking in Chicago, but we're moving out of our current apartment to take possession of the new 2-flat we bought. We gave a notice to vacate with our rent to our management company and have started preparing our new house.

Our current management company just sent us a schedule of charges if we don't thoroughly clean the unit we're in. The issue is that they bought the building after our old lease had expired from the previous owners, so we've never had a lease with them. In addition, our previous management didn't utilize deposits and instead just charged a non-refundable $250 move-in fee to cover any costs.

I guess my question is whether or not they can actually charge us to clean things that weren't clean when we moved in and actually bill us for work if it wasn't a part of our original lease and we've never had a lease with the current management company.

Okay, awesome. Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll just contact him in a couple of days and let him know we'll be completely repainting the bathroom and work out a time. We primed it and I'm making sure it doesn't leak through before painting anyways, so I think that should work. Thanks again!

The tenant has been there for a year. The second unit was also rented, but we needed a place to live too so we closed shortly after their lease ended so we could take possession.

Gotcha, thanks. So on that note, is it harder to defend by unit? Or does it really just depend on if and why you get audited?

Huge thanks for all of the replies! We picked a flooring color that should work with whatever we decide to do with the rest of the place. Once we get moved in, we're going to have someone come out and help us with a comprehensive redesign.

Going to go through all of the options in replies, from checking with our Realtor, to Houzz, to recommendations. Thanks again!

So I've been a landlord for a total of 2 weeks. There were some black spots in a tenant's bathroom on the walls and I think they were mildew. We wiped the whole wall down with a bleach mixture and used a quality primer/sealer on that section of the bathroom, but now I'm at the painting point. The tenant only has one bathroom, and I'm trying to figure out if I should just match his paint (flat, which is the whole problem) and repaint the corner to be less intrusive or if I should go ahead and paint the whole thing semi-gloss to take care of the problem.

My main concern is taking a day to paint his entire bathroom where he'll pretty much need to be gone. In this situation is there a specific rule of thumb to use on if I should just do a quick paint match or repaint it all?