All Forum Posts by: Robert Shelton

Hello all, We have just funded my wife’s SDIRA and have been reading everything we can get our hands on. Just finished “Leverage your IRA” by Matthew Allen amongst others. Still not completely clear on UBIT and UDFI but I’m working on it. My questions are in relation to ministerial services and what is acceptable. I know the best answer everyone can give is to consult my tax attorney, but hopefully this conversation will be a value add to the knowledge of the community as a whole. Primer...my personal holdings use the BRRRR strategy and currently total 5 properties out of state (SC). Previous to my investing is SC I did 1 local (MD) flip and realized I like to keep what I buy. My best friend and his father have owned a local kitchen and bath remodeling business for 40 years and I have been able to purchase all my kitchens and baths at significant discounts (read at cost). This has been a tremendous help to my bottom line and I expect to be able to continue this with all my personal holdings. Another resource I have been able to benefit from is the removal of high-end kitchen, baths and counters which I have stored in my Barn for future rental projects. For these “throw always” I have incurred 0 expense. Final wrinkle, the owner of the kitchen and bath company we do all our business with, my best friends dad, recently married my wife’s mother. Whew...Questions, all for transactions within the new SDIRA: 1.) Can I continue to use this company or have they become disqualified? 2.) If they are not disqualified, can I receive a discount on kitchens and baths bought through this company? 3.) Can I personally deliver from MD to SC, kitchens bought from this company? I travel back and forth about 1x a month already. 4.) Can I use “recycled” cabinets and counters that I have stored in my barn? For now this is the start of my questions and hopefully it will not be a waste of the forums time. Thank you for reading and hopefully we can all learn from the answers provided.

All good points and thank you.  As I stated from the beginning this does not need to be a profit making effort. I wanted to just break even and have a place to stay when I was in town.  After my last trip I have to admit the concerns outweigh the benefits and I am going to sell the boat up here and use the money as down payment on another rental.  Once you get started it is hard to stop.  So if anyone wants a 40' Silverton Convertible fishing yacht hit me up. We have put wayyyy more into it than it is worth and it will make the next owner the smart one as I took the hit for deferred maintentance!

Just did a quick cash flow check on this plan and it looks like $1500mo is approximately my break even. So at $100 a night and 50% occupancy I get there. My guess is I will not reach those numbers in the beginning (maybe ever) and need to be comfortable losing some money but gaining a place to stay.

The quick version. I own, no lien, an older 40’ yacht. I have spent a good amount of money fixing everything as all boat owners know. Now, I am not using it and either have to S or get off the pot. Boat and job are in MD but I am primarily investing (spending free time) in coastal SC. I have been looking at the possibility of shipping boat south ($~3000) renting/buying a slip ($~4000 per year) and Airbnb ing ($80-150 nt.???) as condo rental at 1 of a number of locations close to entertainment etc. I have not worked out all the details yet but wondered if anyone has looked into this option ever? I know Charleston has a number of yacht options from $225 and up but I am not really looking at that market. Further up the coast you have Georgetown, Pawleys island, and Murrells inlet with 0 yacht listings as best I can tell. It would also provide me a place to stay while visiting my other properties/projects. Which is maybe the most appealing part of the plan. So, shoot holes in my half baked plan please so I can move to something else. I do plan to budget another $5000 per year for boat maintenance (haul outs etc.) so total yearly expenses would be roughly $9000 plus utilities. I do not need to make a big profit but do not really want to go through the hassle to lose money. Thoughts? Thanks.

“Let me see if I have this right: So it cost more to do plumbing on your project than what you thought it would. So your not happy with the plumbing trade?”

Relax @Jason S. Sarcasm is just my go to.  My best friend is a plumber and if this project wasn’t 450 miles away I would have way more resources at my fingertips.  My post was in response to the fact that, my much smaller circle of trusted tradesmen where I am now investing, needs to be supplemented.  I am new to the South Carolina market and just wanted to see what others are doing to find qualified tradesmen.  I am pretty decent at estimating and completely understand that when a bid comes in high, that company is probably busy enough that they aren’t that interested in the work.  I think we all understand that as RE professionals.  I have never had to source work outside of word of mouth which was the intention of starting this post and I have received some very good (new to me) websites to explore.  I am a newer member here but not new to renovation business/trades.  

For anyone who would like an update...I received a call from a local company and during our talk he shared that I wasn’t alone in my issues/experience regarding the company I had used on my most recent jobs.  Had a great conversation and we are meeting this week on site.  Thanks again for all the advice I love this community!

I appreciate all the advice.  I received at least 1 good response and have set up a meeting for next week.  

Great advice!!!

Just got a $11,000 estimate from plumbing company we have used previously (full renovation).  I am pretty sure I would rather quit my full time job (not really) and learn to be a plumber before I agree to this estimate.  So I just posted on Craigslist for a qualified plumber myrtlebeach.craigslist.org/trd/d/need-licensed-plumber/6499505083.html

Really no point to this post other than to ask...have any of my brethren attempted this approach to finding new contractors?  How would you have written my post differently?  I am not local to these particular projects so I have been relying on recommended contractors but I am not happy with this specific trade as it has been a larger % of my operation then I ever estimate for.  

Thoughts???

Sorry forgot to mention the cap is said to be 500k. It was not clear if that was aggregate or on a single property.

I have not read the body of the text but if this is true how will it change our approach as an investing group? Also with corporate tax cut to 20% does it now make more sense for many small to mid size investors to change their corporate status? I’m sure many more details and threads will be started but those are my two biggest take aways from the tax overhaul release news.