All Forum Posts by: Michael Stole

The requirement for RE professional is more restrict than just having active participation. To be a pro, you have to (1) have half of your professional work time devoted to real estate, and (2) your professional work time on real estate has to be over 750 in that year. But any activity realated to real estate, as listed above by George, will qualify you as having active participation.

When sell the house, that is capital gain (or loss if selling price is lower than your buying price when you bought the house) and passive loss can not be offset against capital gain.
That is my understanding.

Come on, buys, especially those with experience with the HUD.

My first bid on HUD property was rejected today, shall I wait for a week or two before submit another bid, or bid it again right away, say tomorrow?

Guys, I think I should provide more information about the deal and ask another question. This property can be rented for around $800 per month, and there is no hoa fee, property tax is $500 yearly. Considering what need to be fixed before put it for rent, what would be the highest bid I should put?

I got a quote from a contracter for replacing the whole roof of a 1200 sqft ranch house for $6.5k, including materials.

Hi, J, I will rent this property out if I finally get it.

As I asked in my another post, the house is built in 1993. All the utilities and the roof are original, even though they are tested OK with meters (I don't know what exactly that means), it is most likely all these have to be replace very soon, so I am not sure whether I should count that cost in to figure out my bid.

The utilities are tested OK with meter. What does that mean? Does it mean they are in working condition?

For a house built in 1993. It is forced air central heating and cooling powered by gas. The water heater, furnace, and heat pump are original. So it is time to replace everything? What about the roof? What is the typical life span of a ranch house roof in midwest?