All Forum Posts by: Stuart M.

 Down here in FL age surely does matter - my insurance has a line item premium right there for the age of the building, even if you have a brand new roof, new mechanicals, you name it.  And some won't even cover you if you're too old, at any price.

OK, now we are getting somewhere. So, for last year (due April 2017) return, I ignore that I even had a house because it was never placed in service.

For this years return I file next April, assuming I place it into service Nov 1, I get to depreciate 2 months worth of the asset. (If I put the ad up today, can I do 2.5 months? It is habitable, we are finishing up exterior paint and yardwork.) For my basis, I figure the percentage of the sales price that is the house based on appraisers office ratio (house/house+land), then add all the mortgage interest, home insurance, PMI, RE taxes, utilities, new roof, rental trucks, gas/tolls, electrical/plumbing, appliances, drywall and labor, insulation, doors/paint/trim, lawn service, tools and tool rentals, EVERYTHING I've spent up to this point, even if it was spent in the prior year, add it to the basis, then start my 27.5 years.

I literally have to depreciate my tools over 27.5 years?  Really?  I don't separate them out, can't take a 179 (does that exist still?)

So, say the numbers for a full year in the future work out like this: rental income 30k, depreciation 17k, expenses 25k, I have a net loss of 12k a year.  My wife makes 130k, I can only write that full 12k off against her 130k if I continue to be a real estate professional, because if its a passive loss, we are phased out down to 10k allowed losses (25k minus 50% of 30k) - unless of course we get her MAGI down far enough to allow my losses without being phased-out, in which case I don't need to worry about being a RE professional anymore.

That all sound right?

 But his post is about florida. Streamline is 75% in florida. Limited review in fannie is technically 75/15 i guess, so theres that. 

In either case down payments on condos down here are 2-5x as high as sfh. They DO NOT want owner occupants with mortgages. 

http://www.freddiemac.com/learn/pdfs/uw/condo.pdf

http://www.fanniemae.com/content/guide/selling/b4/2.2/04.html

 As I understand it, depreciation on the basis for a residential house is over 27.5 years.  However, I see that "start up" costs when placing a rental in service are over 15 years if over 50k.  Is this not correct?

So, even though my startup costs and the purchase were in 2016, I don't put any of that on my taxes this year (I literally leave the house off the return completely), I wait until the next return and then I add all of the spending to the basis and start depreciating?  Do I have a separate column for 15 year startup costs?

Considering I was a real estate professional (by definition) for 2016, there is nothing I can expense on that list?  I have to add truck rentals to the basis of the house?  I add tools and tool rentals to the basis of the house?  (I can't separate out tools and depreciate more quickly or does the 179 deduction still exist and is available to me?)

Last question for now: if I place a for rent ad, and then I go and paint the exterior of the house, does that count as a repair after placed in service?  What about paint the interior after placing the ad?  And all of the interest, pmi, taxes, etc, while I'm waiting for it to rent - are those not current expenses instead of being added to basis?  I mean, if I'm willing to rent it unfinished at a discount and someone is willing to live in it as such, I can "repair" things while I wait for the right person, right?

What prevents someone from placing an ad the day they buy the house and expense a bunch of $2500 repairs, even though they assume no one will live in a construction zone (but maybe someone will)?

I live in SFL, and I'm surprised you were able to find a loan that only required 20% down for a condo! When we were looking it was 25% down, so we got stuck buying a SFH at 5% down. Also, I'm not surprised all the condo boards have less than 10% in reserves, no one wants to pay anything but the minimum maintenance fee down here. Another rule for many mortgages was more than 50% owner occupied - which is approximately zero buildings in south florida. Ok, I'm kidding, there are actually 12 buildings approved for FHA loans in Dade or Broward county...of 9300+ total buildings.

Not only that, but condos are significantly more expensive than SFH down here. The 1200 sqft 2br condo I rent would be 600k-700k to buy, plus 1k a month maintenance, a 2k sqft SFH of comparable quality/area is 400k-500k, no maintenance fee, insurance only $100 more per month. The condo will be 25% down (if you can find a mortgage), the house will be 5% down. 25% of 150k is the same as 5% of 750k.

Most condo deals down here are all cash - something like 56% of condo sales in Dade are.

Good luck and let me know if you find something.

Yes, that seems high.  You need to find a broker that is very good at their job, that is willing to look at 10-15 insurance companies, get quotes from them all, adjust every quote as necessary, etc, etc, etc, just to sell you one policy.  They should do an amount or work that would take you weeks to do on your own.  Good brokers and bad brokers are day and night, and trying to figure out what companies to call and get quotes from is time consuming and won't save you any money anyways.

Get a bunch of bids, decide on an order, hire the first, after you fire them go to the next, keep the number of the one that works.

Its completely hit or miss, even with "glowing" reviews or recommendations.

 Wow, I've never heard of that.  Could you post the text of the law or link to it so I can see what I'm looking for in other states?

Yeah I dropped out and regret it constantly.  Not because of the credential or the money but because it limits my opportunities in other ways, and makes it harder to tell the kid to not do what I did.  Now I'm constantly thinking of ways to finish but its so much more complicated later in life when you don't live near your campus, credits not transferring, family, responsibility, etc.

Seriously you have 3 semesters left.  Even though I love my life, I would finish if I could do it all over again.  Just pound it out and be done with it.  And given college schedules, this is only like 16wks x 3.  Cmon.

And for $8 an hour?  You gotta be kidding me.

I'm new here but:

Every lease I've seen has the agreed upon rate as the "pay on time discount" and the full rate as the rate plus late fee, as others have mentioned.  For example, if you agree on 1700 a month and want to add a 50 late fee, you put 1750 for rental rate, "tenant gets $50 discount if paid before the 5th."  I've never argued this while renting or seen anyone argue it, and it avoids any late fee nonsense, state laws, etc.  I've never heard of a state law making an "on time discount" illegal.

The question I have is, why do you not want your tenants to call you over anything more important than a light bulb?  Isn't this a chance to inspect your property, and aren't you glad they're calling to keep it in good repair, instead of having a stove break and they start grilling in the kitchen?  I mean, I'm about to rent my house out, and the brand new toilet should NEVER clog, so if it does, I want to know what the hell is going on - is there a real problem, are they flushing stuff that could do real damage, is the toilet broke, the wax seal a mess, etc - a lot of damage could happen!  Don't you want a chance to go check the filter on your $5k heating/cooling system?  Check for bugs or other damage?  See if there's an illegal pet?  The last thing I want is to walk in after a year of no contact and find 3-4x (or more!) the amount of damage as money I have of theirs in the security deposit.  I mean, a $2k security deposit ain't gonna fix a water damaged $10-20k wood floor.