All Forum Posts by: Rick Jones

@Maggie Medal Hi Maggie! I have not been to any local meetups but I've heard good things about the Allentown/Lehigh Valley meetup. Let me know if I can help in any way, it's really cool that you are helping your brother get started! There are definitely opportunities in the area but just have to work a little harder for them, the market here is tightening much like everywhere else I imagine.

Hi Teri,

Welcome to BP! I too am an auto mechanic. I'm from the area and invest alot in East Greenville, Pennsburg and surrounding areas. I have 14 rental units but have recently been doing more flips. Best of luck in finding your first deal! 

Congratulations on your success so far! I'm pretty local and work in Allentown. I've been interested in buying something in Allentown for awhile. Wouldn't mind chatting with you to learn the area alittle more. Deals have been harder to come by in my town where I normally invest.

Some interesting insight here. Really appreciate all the advice. Searching throughout the site and elsewhere I had been having a difficult time finding guidance on  this topic. Sounds like there could be a number of ways to tackle this. 

Has anyone one else used any of the above methods?

@Dave Toelkes  

Is this something I should be doing with all multifamily properties consistently or just this one since it is split between commercial and residential? Could I split into 2 units one commercial and one residential for ease of bookkeeping? I have another multifamily property that is all residential and I treat it as one. In the past, I have heard that you should use 1 schedule e per parcel number/tax bill. How would this work with a larger multifamily I could see this getting really confusing?

I'm wondering how to classify my mixed-use property on schedule E. It has 6 units, 5 residential and 1 commercial and naturally it would be advantageous if I could classify the property as residential and be able to depreciate over 27.5 years vs 39 years. 

By unit count the property 83% residential and 17% commercial, by sq footage the property is 67% Residential and 33% commercial. By income, the property is 62% residential and 38% commercial.

So BP how would you classify this? Any creative ideas like splitting the property into 2 separate properties and depreciating them in that manner? Any suggestions or advice is appreciated!

So I currently have 8 properties, 14 units all rentals. I have read in the past that its possible to put costs for overall business operation and expenses shared by several properties on a separate schedule E as opposed to dividing up the cost and placing percentages of each expense onto each property. For example office supplies, stamps, computer for business use, QuickBooks subscription, mileage tracking app. subscription, umbrella insurance policy, lawn mower used on multiple properties (business use only), fuel for the said lawn mower, etc. These expenses I see as more of an overall business expense and can not be accurately attributed to any one property. So BP what are your thoughts on such a method? Anyone doing this? Any clear reasons not to? Thanks a bunch!

Wondering how to amortize loan origination costs of business LOC. LOC is over several properties I own. Normally I would amortize the origination costs (appraisals, origination fee, etc.) over the length of the loan but this LOC has no defined end date so just wondering how to amortize these costs or if I should just expense the entire cost this year. Any help would be appreciated!

Good work! Like a few others have posted next time around I would recommend paying the water/sewer and invoicing the Tenant for that amount. Most Tenants look only at the monthly rent amount and are not fazed by having to pay water and sewer as most SFR in the area charge for water and sewer anyway. It's easy to say "oh it's just a couple bucks per quarter" but once you get a few more properties(and you will) it's going to add up quickly and you'll wish you were charging them!