All Forum Posts by: Matt N.

Fair enough. I think you're right there in meeting in the middle. And yes he did do a general inspection but that is not the issue. I told him to just give me the address to send the check. He would then owe me a report. The sewer lateral -- I would pay him a service call fee for what he did and call it quits but he has not been very amicable. As a result, I am assuming we will end up in the situation that I pay him for inspection done, he hopefully gives me report and he will have to either agree to a service call fee for sewer scope or he will have to hire an attorney to come after $200 but, again, it comes down to payment for services and a full payment of $200 is warranted if the service hadn't been fulfilled. Appreciate your response. I think it is a fuzzy legal question actually and that he would be better off coming to an agreement for the service call but that's all I can think of. I was just curious if anyone else has had an experience like this and maybe even seen what the legal result was. 

Robert, he has not issued any type of report. Could you elaborate on the last two sentences you mentioned? Are you saying that, because the condition was there and he could not perform the task, that he should be entitled to the full payment for a sewer scope inspection (even though the video report, etc. was a product of that)? As buyers, we do not know what the condition of these sewer laterals are -- that's why we scope them. I have a hard time jumping to the conclusion that a full payment for impossibility would be warranted. 

Just looking for advice here -- nothing neurotic. I am really seeking suggestions. The inspector was to perform a sewer lateral inspection, which also requires providing us a report. The person showed up, said it's clogged and left and called us after he left. In that situation, I would think a "service call" fee is appropriate. But my understanding is that payment only must be issued after services rendered. I have not paid for the sewer lateral scope and plan on waiting for his attorney to contact me if he is not amicable and willing to either go back out there to perform the inspection or be paid a service call fee. The big point here is that I have not been provided any type of report. I have not been provided a camera video. I have since had the laterals scoped. 

Do people think that he is entitled to the full fee? I'm thinking from a contract standpoint -- we had an agreement, it was never fulfilled. 

We had an inspector come out to inspect our property and perform the sewer lateral inspection. General inspection was fine. The guy spent most of the time talking and bashing other companies but it went ok. Sewer later - not so much. He was supposed to do a full sewer lateral inspection. In my area, that typically means scope the sewer lines and provide a video of it so we can negotiate with the seller. This inspector showed up, stuck the tools in and said it was way too clogged and he wouldn't be able to do it. As this is a distressed property, we understand that this makes sense and I guess we aren't paying him to Snake the sewer lines to get everything out. Where I am stuck is that this inspector then left, called us and said he couldn't do it and gave us the information to send all the money for it. We had to call another person out to snake it and are asking him to go back out there to perform the services that we thought we were going to get. He said no.

Any thoughts on this one? Anyone have similar experience? The next course of action would presumably be him getting his attorney and going after the $200 for the sewer scope. 

 Hey J - great article. Thanks so much. One follow up: The URL for the contract template was not working. Anyway you can assist there. 

Hey all - I have a distressed property I am purchasing. It is in contract and I have a bid from my family member contractor who will be performing the work. I have a business parter in the deal too. 

I want to make sure I have thought out any risks associated with the contractor. 

First, is there any type of insurance you think I need to get, and if so, do you have any suggestions on what to look into? I want to make sure I am protected if anyone gets hurt on the property or if anything happens. 

Second, the contractor is guaranteeing a certain time frame to get it done and a $50 penalty per day to come out each day it is late. Does anyone know where I might go to get a good contract for myself and contractor to use? I can then tailor it up but looking for a good template. 

Last, do you have any general suggestions on what to think out on this contract? I plan on rinse/repeating this process with this person and hope to think everything out at the onset. 

Thanks!

BUMP

Hey all -

I was curious if anyone had any guidance on this situation. I am curious if I could end up saving a lot in taxes by going from an agent to a broker. First, I was thinking about costs. Is being required to have an office where you hang licenses combined with insurance you must carry the two biggest costs? Are there any other significant costs involved if you are only planning on having 3 or 4 agents in the next 4 years? Or can I claim my home as an office even while having a few agents hang their license? 

If you do own the brokerage, which appears to be as simple as setting up an LLC and having a brokerage license, could I then shelter 50%+ of my sales commissions from self employment tax and add other people to my team?

It is my understanding that, as a business owner and using an S-Corp, you only have to claim a reasonable salary then the rest is considered a distribution sheltered from self employment tax. (e.g. You make 100k in commissions this year, your accountant can say 40k of that is your reasonable salary which you will pay 15% self employment tax on. The 60k is a business distribution not subject to employment tax.) Is this accurate or am I off-base? Would appreciate any guidance available as this is just a thought at this point that I am trying to explore further. 

Cheers!

David, did you reach out to the contact? I am looking for something similar. Just curious if that worked out for you or if you found someone who was able to get you what you want. 

Hi all!

I had a pointed question related to the home office deduction. I am a real estate agent (licensed in May), an attorney with a full-time job separate from my real estate business, and an investor with several properties and am the property manager for those properties. 

I believe I would qualify for the home-office deduction since I perform most of my real estate business at my house (writing contracts, making appointments, pretty much everything except for showing properties). So in that sense, I am pretty confident I would qualify. However, I also have a full-time job (40 hours a week) as an attorney 20 minutes from my house that I am claiming as a home office deduction. Do you all see any problems here? I can seek out advice from a CPA, which I plan on doing so in February, but I want to know if this is something I should start preparing for the CPA and all the expenses related to it. I also conduct a lot of my property management for my properties administrative work at home for what it is worth. 

One separate question, if I do have it as a home office deduction, can I claim all miles from there to the properties I show, etc., and back as deductible miles?

THANKS!

-Matt