All Forum Posts by: Steven Fitzen

I'm a silly person and I couldn't figure out how to delete my original question because I found other threads that asked the same question I was asking, and had hoped to prevent posting the same question. However, upon reading through the forums, I found that my question wasn't answered. What I originally asked was, as an investor, if you belong to a brokerage and pay your associated fees for whatever membership is required, and perform an out of brokerage based real estate transaction (such as assigning a contract, creating a lease option, or fix and flipping a house), do you still have to pay that brokerage a percentage of whatever your profit is because you're a member of the brokerage? As I read that, it seems a little verbose, so I'll try and put it into an example.

Steven becomes a licensed sales agent because he wants accurate and reliable information for the real estate market in his area through the MLS. Steven finds a local investor who is looking for a condo in a specific area of Oahu. Steven finds a condo that was recently put up for sale after the owners were eaten by dinosaurs and is extremely below market value due to fear of said dinosaurs. Steven assigns the contract to the investor for $2,500. Now, since Steven disclosed to both the survivor and the investor that he was licensed, but would receive no payment in the form of a commission, and that he was acting independently, does Steven still owe the ABC Brokerage a commission of his profit?

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One of the biggest hurdles I faced as a new investor was the initial overhead costs of creating a legal entity through which to protect myself, as well as the desire to add a sense of legitimacy to my presence. While creating an LLC isn't something that will force you into bankruptcy, I still thought it was awesome when I discovered that you could write off up to $5,000 in startup costs. I'll abbreviate what I found, and then post the link to the source.

1) Determine the amount of startup expenses incurred by your LLC

2) Write off your startup costs on your tax return by filling out Form 4562 and attaching it to your tax return for the first year you are in business.

3) File your tax return.

It's that easy! Now new investors who want to create a business presence don't have to fear that initial start up fee, at least the first $5,000 anyway.

original article can be found here: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/write-off-startup-costs-llc-15790.html

There are institutions like Veterans United and Veteran2Veteran that cater specifically to prior and current service members.