All Forum Posts by: Trevor J.

Thank you all for the detailed advice. This is a good example of taking things you read with a grain of salt and never forgetting to throw in your common sense... as much as BP loves to rave about this book and this author, this particular advice from the book seemed too good to be true - it seems like this thread agrees.

-Trevor 

Hey All,

Has anyone had any success with having their capital gains tax excluded upon sale of your property after living there for only 1.5 out of the last 5 years?

In Garrett Sutton's book, "Loopholes of Real Estate", Chapter 11, he writes that a "year" is justified if you lived there for the majority of that calendar year... therefore living in your primary residence for 1yr and 7months consecutively should grant you the Primary Residence Exception, right? He also mentions that under special circumstances you can get a pro-rated exclusion, but first want to see about the whole exclusion.

Any accountants have a take on this?

Thanks!

-Trevor

Hey All,

Has anyone had any success with having their capital gains tax excluded upon sale of your property after living there for only 1.5 out of the last 5 years?

In Garrett Sutton's book, "Loopholes of Real Estate", Chapter 11, he writes that a "year" is justified if you lived there for the majority of that calendar year... therefore living in your primary residence for 1yr and 7months consecutively should grant you the Primary Residence Exception, right? He also mentions that under special circumstances you can get a pro-rated exclusion, but first want to see about the whole exclusion.

Any accountants have a take on this?

Thanks!

-Trevor

It probably would, although that's not exactly the tenant base I was shooting for to be my "roommates", but what I have found is this area draws a lot of professionals who pick this area for it being central to all the highways. 

I second what @Kenneth Donaghy said. He helped me early on with my house-hacking; I do RbtR in the Grantville neighborhood. I even went the condo route and if I were to move out, my unit would be cash-flow positive. If I didn't RbtR it'd probably break even depending on how much damage the tenants were causing. 

RbtR is more work, potentially more turnover, but for starting out (especially if you're living there) it's the ideal situation in SD in my opinion.

@Dan H. TL;DR - so no recommendations? :)

I second @Javier Rosales' post - Very shortly I plan to add an interior, non-load bearing (hopefully with some soundproofing?) wall to close off a living room and create a new bedroom in my house hack... shouldn't be much more than just the wall, paint & finish, door, closet, touch-ups around the edges where they interfaced with the existing walls... typical adding a bedroom / house hacking things.

If anyone has any recommendations for contractors please chime in! It would be really helpful.

Thanks, BP

Make your goal 6-9mo and you'll let yourself succeed in 9mo. Just set your goal for 6mo and you'll watch yourself get there in 5. Good luck!

With CL pay attention to the posting date... listings that have been up for a while are a clear indicator that their rent is too high for what they are offering there. 

For areas you are newly researching, save those links and check back on that area every week to see what's actually getting rented out.

I also tried tracking FB marketplace listings but found so that most listings are months old... not too helpful, maybe just the areas I was looking in, though, so worth a shot if you haven't yet.

Can't make it anymore - too backed up with post-holiday work in the office :/ Looking forward to Feb 7th!

@Christian Domingo 

Here's a super over-simplified road map I followed that will hopefully get you asking some more questions...

1) Figure out your financing situation - how much can you put down? What loan ceilings do you qualify for, both going the FHA route and the conventional route? Get pre-qualified from lenders around here.

2) What style of living are you comfortable with? Renting by the room, going for separate units (duplex, triplex), etc.?

3) What level of rehab (if any) are you comfortable with performing on your purchase?

4) How far are you willing to travel for your commute? 

Once you know the answer to the above, start looking on listing sites like Zillow and analyze properties using the BP calculator or make your own. You'll see trends, then it's up to you how much you want to pay out of pocket each month... don't expect to fully cash flow to start unless you are really far from the coast or putting down a heft down payment (probably, but don't quote me on it, >20% down).

Good luck!

-Trev