All Forum Posts by: Nathan M kiefer

So I got a text from my cleaner that the washer wasn't working. It would go for about 3 minutes then flag an error LO FL. It is a Maytag mid grade front loader.

That error is low flow on the water. Luckily I was driving over with my son to move all his stuff from his apartment to a storage unit at WSU so he can move into a single apartment for his grad school work.

I was thinking it was the 2 water line screens. The city of Harrison ID where our lake house is located have been upgrading the water system. New well, improved pumps and the 2nd well was just turned on. Guests reported some brown water for a short time. I figured the screens had some debris. No big.

I get to the house and get started. I see the trim ring around the outlet box is falling off. It takes me 2 seconds to see that someone turned off the valves. What? Why would anyone do that? Makes no sense. I was able to wash all the laundry overnight before we had to head to WSU and get rolling.

Plus someone stole one of the small heaters I keep in the closets for winter guests if they need extra heat upstairs....dammit....

This is why there will always be rentals and strs. The things people do never ceases to amaze me. Just had one complain that they couldn't get the grill going ( a brand new Webber). This was after I had them swap out a tank from the extras we leave there.

the complaint was it was lit then went out. Sent my tech over and they had the flex line to the tank so twisted it cut off flow to lp, new one for me but it's real!

im sure they have a reason in their head they cut off your valves but we will never know lol

0 Votes

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Thanks @Nathan M kiefer. That is a decent return for your cost seg.

Keep us posted.

10-4 will do

1 Vote

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Quote from @Michael Baum:

That is an excellent question. I have seen folks get them done, but none have ever said how long it took.

I am curious how sizeable is sizeable. My biggest concern with cost seg studies that produce a large rebate is does that flag for audit.

You don't need to say how much but did you get any info on IRS flags for something like this?

Hey @Michael Baum, we had previously depreciated some stuff but ended up with a return of about $25k. I have $900 each into the cost segs themselves and probably another $2500 to cpa- still waiting on that bill as the 3115 takes 20 hours for a cpa to fill out.

I would think I'm small potatoes for them and the form 3115 is so ridiculously thorough that i think it all but negates audit but we shall see :).

I will report back when/if i get it and what the timeline was/is, I was holding out hope that someone had some information on this but its been crickets. Almost posted elsewhere but this is specific to STR so seemed appropriate.

Thank you for your response.

1 Vote

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Quote from @Bunti Papu:

I have been an landlord for 6 years and own 6 properties. All of my tenants are long term tenants and my property is managed by a property management company. So all the rental income is passive for tax purposes.
I also make W2 income. I would like to purchase short term rentals and be able to qualify as a real estate professional and deduct against by active income taxes. I am thinking of purchasing an airbnb/vrbo property and have several questions.

1. Can I hire a property management company to run my airbnb or can I at least hire a company for cleaning and maintaining?

2. How do I show that I have worked for at least 100 hours per year to qualify as real estate professional?

3. Where can I learn more about this topics on saving taxes using short term rentals?

Thank you,

Brad

It is very difficult to qualify as a rep without managing your own portfolio .

You may find someone to do it(cpa) but it's a good way to get audited.

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We did a cost seg amended return for a sizeable refund on our two strs in Myrtle beach. Wondering what others have experienced once the amended return is filed with IRS as far as a timeline on when I will receive my return?

I know boiler plate response is 12-16 weeks but really want to know what people are ACTUALLY experiencing.

Thanks all

0 Votes

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Do what we did, give it a year and if it ends up being good keep it. If it does what ours does then you can make a decision.

our two houses are about 1.5mm together - maybe with a $2mm house you will have a little more responsible guests but I doubt it as there is always one person that screws it for everyone.

fortunately for us, the dip in income didn't impact us because we bought with cash but if they have that pressure it may make a difference

1 Vote

Tampa, Florida

Depending on the area. We have two strs both rented carts but the security in our area will remove your ability to have a cart for 5 years if you get two tickets.

the liability isnt much of anything - we use progressive or State farm. We had someone get a ticket and pulled the carts for the rentals, probably cost us between 5-10% of total revenue but it was more important for us to keep our carts than not have them for an extended period.

$2 mm house or not you will have headaches with carts regardless and in our experience it's just not worth the hassle.

my recommendation is work a deal with a local place you can refer them to and get a small referral fee from. In our resort the resort owns the golf cart company so you can read through the lines there

0 Votes

Tampa, Florida

Quote from @Cliff H.:

@Nathan M kiefer did I see you say your STR hosts 13 people and you've been running with 3-4 rolls of TP per stay? Holy smokes! Are you renting single night stays or just hoping guests BYOTP? As others have said, there's plenty of way to make up this marginal cost that saves your guests the embarrassment of asking upstairs to toss down a half used roll or make an unexpected run the gas station with a dirty bum. 😱

It's not about the money. We have done this for years and just this past few months I got some complaints. I couldnt care less about stocking it with tp, thats why we put this thread out is to see what others are doing. We plan to do 2 rolls per bath as others have mentioned.

0 Votes

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Quote from @Shannon Strickland:

Hi @Nathan M kiefer,

I'm currently only hosting my sixth guest in NMB, so my input is not as informative or deeply experienced as yours. While I don't supply paper towels, each of the three bathrooms is stocked with three rolls of toilet paper. But I don't provide any personal bathroom amenities (i.e. shampoo), and my guests are aware of that. So far, I haven't received any negative feedback about these choices. Since I purchased the 4/3 SFH this year and had to spend a significant amount on decorating and insurance, I've chosen to keep expenses to a minimum. My thought was one roll per person plus one extra—the house sleeps eight, so we supply nine rolls. I don't know why folks are complaining except that times and standards always change. Don't know if that helps!

Thanks for your response, we plan to do 2 rolls per bathroom. Our two strs hold 13 each- one roll per guest - interesting concept I'll have to think about that

1 Vote

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Quote from @Chris Watson:

Leave atleast two rolls per bathroom. For actual bottomline impact it will cost you at most $4 per guest if they used it all. With 60 guests a year you are out $240 additional. You could raise your rates by $1 a night if you don't want it to impact your cashflow.

As for linens not on beds: imagine a family packing for a vacation and cramming everything in a car, dealing with screaming kids on the trip, dealing with nightmare traffic and finally getting to the place and unpack all the crap. They had a hard day already but now before trying to go to sleep they have to work more and make their beds. They have been agitated all day and this will set them off. I know in NC/SC when I looked at STRs a few years ago I have seen some saying we would have to bring our own linens. What has happened is the consumer expectations has changed and now owners who are use to a different consumer must change or deal with complaints and/or low occupancy. I recommend changing your business practice to meet today's consumer.

We don't have vacancy issues and both are high end listings. Thanks for your response

0 Votes

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

All Forum Posts by: Nathan M kiefer

Nathan M kiefer has started 11 posts and replied 346 times.

Post: Crazy guests! Why?

Post: Str cost seg amended return

Post: Str cost seg amended return

Post: Request advice on short term rentals

Post: Str cost seg amended return

Post: Any experience including Golf Carts?

Post: Any experience including Golf Carts?

Post: Tp or not tp

Post: Tp or not tp

Post: Tp or not tp