All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Question for you - I started a HELOC application on March 12th and am through all approvals and up to the appraisal, which the lender requires for a rental property. They scheduled it for this Thursday, but one my the tenants in the duplex is concerned about someone accessing the property and asked for it to be postponed until after the lockdown. I don't foresee that being possible with the lender, given the timing and the uncertainty of when the lockdown may end.

I don't want to force the tenants to allow access, because their concern is legit, but I also don't want to lose my HELOC application when I could really use the access to those funds going forward. Any thoughts?

I had a sewer line collapse in my duplex last fall - the old clay pipe collapsed, causing black water leakage into my basement and I called in Roto Rooter for an emergency containment and restoration since I had tenants living in one half and was actively showing the other half. It was damn expensive - I was out of pocket $19,887 and eventually received an insurance reimbursement for a little over $5k. For this they did excavation through the entire length of the basement and yard, new concrete, black water restoration, etc.

Now that I'm filing taxes myself through TurboTax (as I always do), I'm a bit stumped as to how to deduct. IRS.gov says any restoration is an improvement, and given the amount, I don't qualify for a Safe Harbor and would probably trigger some questions if I put it as a repair, so I'm pretty set on depreciating it.

Does anyone know how I'd handle that? I've seen various opinions around the internet saying 5 yrs, 15 yrs, 27.5 yrs, or just do an exception all at once. And do I need to break out what was spent on excavation vs restoration or any other classification? 

And also, I assume I'd only deduct the net amount of about $15k that I paid ($19,887 minus the $5k reimbursement from insurance?).

Big thanks to anyone with some insight on this!

Hi Ken, 

I live and invest in Cleveland Heights. I'm finding that it's a tough market to find a deal because of the high purchase price of multi-families, high property taxes, and strict point of sale inspections. However, it's a great rental market with the universities and hospitals nearby.

What particularly would you like to know?

Welcome to Bigger Pockets, @Daniel Smith. I call the Heights home as well. Lovely community, isn't it? Good luck with both the game studio and investing.

@Xavier Allen Welcome, fellow Clevelander. What I love about real estate is that it's not a zero sum game and we can all find, create or develop a piece of the pie that suits us. 

Good to see another passionate Cleveland investor.

Hi Nathan,

I'm relatively new myself and also looking to meet like-minded people. I've been investing for 9 months and am thinking about getting my real estate license to help my business. I'd be curious to hear your take about the process and potential payoffs for having your license.

Let me know if you'd like to grab a coffee some time and talk shop.

Ray

Hi AShira, welcome to BP. It's a great community and you can learn a lot from the forums & podcasts. I certainly have!

Regarding the low cost rental in a tougher neighborhood vs. renting a property in a nice neighborhood with lower margins, you should check out Chad Carson's BP podcast from 8/21. He recommends a book that I'm going to check out this week:

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Wealth-One-House-Time/dp/0071448357

Has anyone read this John Schaub book? He seems to promote the simpler approach of buying high quality, higher cost properties that require less maintenance and management and focusing on long term buy & hold to pay off mortgages. I can appreciate this approach, especially as I'll likely have a full time job for the foreseeable future.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad (the original) and The Millionaire Next Door were the gateway drugs to a pursuit of financial independence for me. It's amazing (and kind of sad) to think about how much time and money I may have wasted by not having a real financial goal in place.

I've heard a lot of negative things about Robert Kiyosaki and didn't enjoy his podcast when I tried it out, but you really can't go wrong reading his first book and thinking about becoming an asset owner instead of an employee. Good luck!

29 for my personal residence and 33 for my investment earlier this year. I wish I had considered investing earlier, but I now have great credit and some money saved up from a decade of good jobs and frugal living.

I went with conventional financing for the duplex, but am looking into alternate financing in the future since 20% down would be hard to repeat too many times.