All Forum Posts by: Neil Polehn

Hey All,

I just used a cash windfall to buy my dream home in San Jose for 1.6M and, as it was very dated inside,  I am spending 200K to dramatically upgrade the kitchen, bathrooms and flooring with premium materials and using the tax code to write it all off.  Here is my plan.  I am going to keep my condo and rent out (2) rooms of the SJ house to friends in the Fall of 2023 to show it as a rental.

Since I am receiving income from the SJ house and keeping my primary residence, I can write off my improvements in 2023 and in 2024, after I have finished the upgrades, I will rent out my condo and move into the SJ house and make that my primary residence. This should allow me to carry all the upgrades I made as capital gains losses to write off against any future income I have.  Also, since I am using an interior decorator and spending on kitchens and bathrooms mostly, I believe I should get most, if not all, of those money back as equity.

So, in 2024 I will move into my dream house and rent out my condo, having had a great time designing and improving my dream home.  I dont see any flaws in this plan so hopefully there are not:)

Neil

I hear good things about both and I know you can get 1% rule in Cleveland, but then I hear about so many people going to Saint Louis.  Is there something secret I don't know about it until i join the special club? :)  Thanks

Neil

Hello All!,

My amazing contact moved on from my pm company and now i find myself doing a lot of the work myself.  I have a section 8 housing person and I need to raise the rent (its been 7 years) and do some repairs, but not getting any support from the PM company so I am doing all the research and running around while they collect their fee. I also have another house, so they are doing okay off me.

Can someone recommend a more together and proactive PM company in the area?  I feel as though I am doing half the work including interacting with the tenant as she has special needs.  Thanks so much!

Neil

Originally posted by @Scott Wilkonson:

I'm looking to use large-scale data scraping to find deals.  Has anyone done this before or would be interested in doing it?  I'd love to hear ideas on what parameters would provide value.  I'd also love to discuss what automation features would add value to searches.   

I used to be a data analyst so I was working on this, but the issue I couldnt resolve was that data is historic and the real estate market is always changing with some new factor (lower interest rates, etc). I think you could come up with some good performance ratios like the 1% guideline though.  I am pondering that.

Hello All,

  I am on  disability as I could no longer work at my high paying tech job due to spinal infections and the stress.  Obviously a big drop from my salary to disability. To augment my income I am stepping up my real estate involvement going from 5 doors to two more this year already. I manage one property myself and do my own taxes, so I know I could qualify for the "real estate professional" tests after carefully reviewing the codes .  I keep a log of my hours spent on approved activities. My spouse has a 150K tax bill, so this makes sense to do..

Question: Because I am on disability and my income would switch from passive to activate would that make me ineligible for disability? I need the insurance as well as the extra income as cash flow is tight till things get up and running.  Thanks so much!

Neil

Hello All, I have the same situation where I am on ss disability and am stepping up my real estate investing to provide additional income to live on and for something interesting to do.  I could likely meet the "real estate professional" threshold and know what level of activity is required, and track all my qualifying activities in a log in Excel. My spouse has a huge tax expense, so it makes sense to do this for us.

Question:  Will I risk losing my disability if I become a "real estate professional" in the tax code, but staying an investor living off the passive income?

Thanks!
Neil

Hello All,

I am interested in learning Cleveland market and getting some help with MSL leads from a realtor to start. My conform zone is SFR with a guest unit or duplexes, that are in decent (c or b) neighborhoods at least. I am not that picky so I try to select places that I would live in when I was starting out. I don't mind sifting through MLS listings to learn the market. I am in escrow right now on a property in another market, so I am not suppose to be buying another property yet per my spouse, but looking can't hurt, right? :)

Neil

I just returned to real estate recently, and I am just a small investor, but I keep seeing posts where people can't find deals.  That is not my experience at all.  I find plenty of deals on the MLS that cash flow positive, in a up and coming area without any or minimal work needed on the building. 

In fact, I am in escrow on a newer SFR in the desirable North Austin area that will cash flows $600 dollars a month positive (talked with PM to verify rents) cash flow. I am definitely not a pro, but I do take the time to grind through the MLS in several parts of the country and created a speadsheet that can quickly calculate the numbers I need to decide.  I also have a very clear target property I am looking for and Realtors who are on the hunt for me.

Unfortunately, those houses will have usually have a lot of competition, but i won the bid war before and so can someone else.  There are so many deals my spouse prohibits me from looking at the MLS till my current escrow closes.  The key is to go through the MLS and learn the area, so one will know a deal when it come up. If 15 people are bidding for it, then you know your instincts are probably right.
Neil

Hi Whitney,

Great, thanks for the input. I have all those in my spread sheet now.

I looked at the description of your podcast and it sounds like a great episode I will have to listen to once I finish my move to Hawaii and life settles down. I am where you were when you first started your journey--looking for SFR. So, the metrics I reference are mostly the 1% rule of thumb, COC, cash flow and DSCR. Having my spreadsheet means I can quickly pop in a couple numbers and know if it's going to work or not and how much I can bid if there are multiple offers quickly.

Neil

I use to be a data analysis and love looking at closed listings to pull out trends.  When I have time I plan to work on this project more, but life happens:)  I have some questions I want to answer. I think properties that had multi offers are interesting..what caused this?  Price per sq foot in the same areas, what makes a property go for more then another (floor plan fixings etc)?  Does advanced marketing (virtual tours, online bidding, etc) result in more offers?