All Forum Posts by: Jake Hottenrott

I don't have a local recommendation for you, but I would recommend looking around BP for a tax pro/tax adviser. There are many great tax pros out there who work virtually with clients from coast to coast and work mainly with real estate investors. Most do their work through email, document sharing, client calls and skype/video if you want face to face communications. In the end it saves you time because you aren't traveling to an office for a meeting and the added bonus of a technologically advanced tax pro makes the process more efficient.

The best way would be to schedule consultations and get a feel for if their communication style works with yours.

Best of luck!

@Joe Atkins - As a CPA, I highly recommend always listening to your CPA.

@Kyle Falkenstein - your wish is my command. See @Natalie Kolodij up there? She’s in NC and is a great Real Estate tax pro.

@Lacey Daebel - Congrats on getting started, I wrote two posts a while back that should be of help here.  One is about your CPA being local.  While I think there is something to be said about doing business in your community, you might find that a majority of tax practitioners are generalist who may work with many industries and be the proverbial jack of all trades, master of none.  Here on the forums there are many great tax pros who specialize in working with real estate investors.  I'd check out a few of the posts and see how their interaction and tax knowledge fits with what you are trying to do, then I'd schedule a consult to see if your personalities would allow you to work well together.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/5926/41216-does-my-cpa-have-to-be-local

Secondly, as you grow, you may want to eventually move into having properties in an LLC, but with your first property you may be able to limit your liability with great insurance coverage while allowing you to get the best financing with investments in your personal name

https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/5926/53215-questions-as-common-as-the-cold---llc

@Fred Cannon - I would recommend poking around the BiggerPockets forums for some tax pro recommendations.  You can likely get a great idea of who knows their stuff and who has a philosophy on communication and strategy that works with yours.  Most of the pros you find on here are typically niched to some degree toward Real Estate.  Also, many will work with investors like yourself no matter where they are located.  Best of luck and let me know if you have any questions!

@Bill Brandt - sorry meant to tag @Bob Malecki

@Bill Brandt - if you don’t have any properties in an area, you won’t be able to write off any of the expenses. You may capitalize properly accounted and reasonable expenses to apply to the basis of a property when purchased but not expensed if you aren’t an active investor in a particular area.

Whew, that first sentence made my CPA senses tingle.  Now, @Mary M. brings up a valid point that sometimes there is a very good underlying reason for something.  There is almost never a 100% tried and fast rule especially in tax, that's why most tax professionals give a general rule on here but also say "it depends", because it does, to your specific situation.

@Natalie Kolodij does hit the nail on the head with noting that its almost never advisable to put rentals into a S-Corp, but this is why you need to ask your current tax professional why they recommended it and potentially schedule a paid consultation with someone else to get a second opinion.

Best of luck and welcome to BP!

@Sunil Sharma - as @Natalie Kolodij mentioned, I am one state over.  I'm in "Southern" Illinois.  :-D  I do work with clients remotely, but if you need to work face to face, I would also second the recommendation of @Steven Hamilton II.  

@Michael Sontheimer - Congrats on the sale!  You may qualify for what is known as an IRC Sec 121 exclusion.  This
allows a taxpayer to exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for certain taxpayers who file a joint return) of the gain from the sale (or exchange) of property owned and used as a principal residence for at least two of the five years before the sale.  If you don't meet that basic parameter, let us know and we can see if you qualify for some of the other exclusion.  Also, it's not taxed as ordinary income, only as a capital gain (short term or long term) if it is taxed.