All Forum Posts by: Sara Batool

Thanks Andrew. I hadn't thought of it that way and that absolutely makes sense. 

I'm checking the forums if I can find any brokers or PMs in my target market of the bay area. Thanks!

Thanks Andrew. I haven't been able to find experienced STR agents in my areas of interest - downtown San Jose and thereabouts. And hence my reliance on rabbu. I wouldnt go with a property management company as this would preclude any STR tax benefits on our w2 income.

I've been using Rabbu for evaluating STR purchase in a couple of markets. I see that rabbu also had its own property listings. Would anyone know if these are general or in some way filtered/curated for STR potential?

My evaluation seems to be some of the  listings having very low occupancy projections. 

Thanks for any insight 

Some background that I hope provides cover for naive questions. 

My husband has a regular W2 job in the bay area. I used to work as a hospital/pharmacy admin, but took up work at my local elementary school to be close to my kids. Now with them on middle school autopilot, I want to get more involved in finances and figure out how real-estate can help with saving on our California/Federal taxes. So, in other words, am very early in my learning and excuse my naivete.

Regarding our tax strategy, we talked to our regular CPA who advised us to setup a LLC (in cali) in my name, loan money to this LLC and purchase rental property. Since I'd be self-managing the rental property, the downpayment, expenses and depreciation on the property would be tax deductible against our W2 income.

Now, this sounds too simple to me. Also, he couldn't confirm if this required having a Real Estate Professional status (which I've read is very tough and litiguous). Can someone with more experience (tax professional or otherwise) please give their take on this? Sounds simple enough but not sure why everyone doesn't do that.

Thank you

@Dave Foster - thank you so much for answering!

Hello. This is my first post here. Thank you to everyone who makees this forum such an incredible resource. I've been able to find somewhat of an answer to my query below but hoping someone can confirm my conclusion.

My husband and I bought our first primary residence in July 2020 about an hour from the bay area. We just went with was available on the market and paid $700k ($200k down). Currently the asking price is around $850k (based on comps) and our 'dream house' is coming on the market for around $950k in the same area. I wanted to sell my current residence and roll the capital gains towards the new house (similar to a 1031 exchange). However, on further reading, it seems that is NOT possible for a primary residence and we would end up paying capital-gains taxes on the sale because of a 2 year hold constraint. 

Appreciate if someone would clarify this understanding. I hope I'm wrong on this but looking for some tax wisdom. Thank you.