All Forum Posts by: Eric C.

I think the difficulty will be finding a lender that will give you a HELOC on an investment property. You will probably have to look at local CUs. Anyway, let us know what you find.

@William Behm: No change, it's still 2 out of 5.

What “tax strategy” are these high priced CPAs implementing for their clients with a few rental properties? Last high priced CPA I interviewed basically suggested that I “produce” more receipts that can be used for deductions. Said someone with my financial profile should have at least $4-5k in additional deductions. Needless to say I never made the appointment for him to prepare my return.

Originally posted by @Corby Goade:

You can actually have both- pay all cash and do a cash out refi. You can even do it immediately by taking a small hit to LTV with a delayed financing deal.

 Then you lose the initial mortgage fee savings by purchasing in cash.  In fact, you will double pay some fees.

Any feedback on this?

I'm trying to understand how much of a concern a bowed wall should be in a new construction property and if my agent and property manager (same person) should have raised an issue with the builder about it.  My agent did a walk through before closing and did not mention the bowed wall to the builder (or notice it?).  During the tenant walk through, the tenant mentioned the bowed wall to the PM/agent, but the property manager did not mention it to me or the builder.  Once I was able to visit the property (it's an OOS rental), I saw the bowed wall and immediately put in a service request to the builder.  Due to timing constraints on the tenant side, we decided to wait until after the new year to get it fixed.

Turns out that the bowed wall was caused by the water supply line coming in too close to the wall so the framer had to push out the frame as much as he could to avoid the supply line.  This is what caused the bowed wall.  Unfortunately, the water line was still too close to the wall and a nail hit it when the dry wall was put up.  After a few months the pipe started leaking (this is behind the wall) and now there is some pretty extensive damage to the walls around the pipe, wood floors, and baseboards.  

All this could have been avoided if the bowed wall was fixed prior to close.  So I'm just wondering if a bowed wall usually signifies bigger issues or if it's usually just a cosmetic issue that isn't worth the time to get fixed or follow-up on.

I would look into SFRs in Forsyth county as well.

@Brian Burke You mentioned low returns for DSTs. I'm wondering what you consider to be low returns. The DSTs I looked at would most likely provide an IRR of low double digit returns. I even saw some in the mid teens (completed DSTs). These returns are pretty good in my opinion for a completely passive and convenient 1031 exchange target.

I know management fees and commissions are high for DSTs, but it's all embedded in the return so I took the view that it doesn't really matter if I'm getting low double digit returns after 5-7 years.

It's definitely legal to cut a check out to the buyer with commission proceeds (at least in CA).  My agent has this model and has been audited by the IRS due to the large number of deductions taken from the proceeds.  He provided the rebate explanation and paper trail and came out of the audit just fine.

I'm a big proponent of the pay per hour model and so is my agent.  I offer $250-$300 per hour depending on the task and I'm not sure how anyone can complain that this amount is too low.  I did speak to one agent before I found my current one and he went on and on about his value and years of experience, blah blah.  I purchased a $350k property and paid my agent $1250 for the transaction.  Took 5 hours of his time, probably much less since offers/counter offers don't take 1 hour each.  $1250 is still $1250 and the first agent lost out. 

@Dave Ketcham  Amanda Han seems a bit overpriced.  Her office tries to sell a complete package which includes tax preparation services and the minimum fee was a few thousand dollars (I think $3-4k!!).  She doesn't really do tax preparation only from what her staff mentioned because she has too many clients that buy into her complete package service.  

I'm sure she is a good CPA, but the fees just seem outrageous for a standard W2 + few rental properties tax return.