All Forum Posts by: Mike Rodrigues

Ok,

Last year I did my taxes with H&R Block. I own my house, but I rent out two rooms inside. I have done the math with the square footage, and I rent 41% of the home out. When I did my taxes last year with the H&R Block gentleman, we established that I am renting 41% and then we took 41% of every expense that we could claim and entered it into the system.

For example I paid something like $4k in interest, but on the schedule E it only states about $1,900.

When I went to go do my taxes on my own with their software. I was asked what percentage I rented the home, I entered 41% then I entered in all my expenses in full. I was told I was getting back more than double what I got back last year, when not much has changed other than my taxes going up a little and same with my homeowners insurance. Last year I remodeled a bathroom for $16k, so that isn't on my taxes this year, do I need to take all my expenses and deduct the 41% from them then enter or should the software automatically be doing it? Did the H&R Block guy screw me over last year?

Thanks in advance!

Wayne,

Thanks for your reply, I would love her info.

So I just spoke to a mortgage broker yesterday, I was pre-approved but he told me I cannot buy a condo with a conventional investment loan because not only would I need to get approved, but the bank has to approve the association as well. Because of this, he stated that they would never get approved because the qualifications are much more stringent than FHA and the like.

Has anyone heard of this before. I live in South Florida, and I have a full-time job I plan on keeping for a long time while getting my feet under me in REI. Because of that, I just wont have the time to manage a single family on top of the fact that there are TONS of condos in FL. This could really limit me.

Hi guys,

Every place I have gone to learn about REI in buy and hold properties I see people using all these rules (50% rule and so on) and they always know how much the potential place can rent for. I have a range in my area 2b 2ba usually around 1200-1400 right now and 3b 2-2.5ba are anywhere from 1500+. That is a huge range in my opinion. Where and how are you guys estimating potential rents?

Again guys thank you very much, my parents were on vacation and with giving them the information that I learned here, they want to do some things differently. They don't want to from and LLC with me, and they don't want to be part of the mortgage at all. They would just rather not have any of the debt in their name.

What they want to do now is just gift the money.

@Robert Levaro above seems to think I would be on BETTER moral grounds with the lender, but based on responses from @John Holdman and others still say that the money needs to be mine.

I am blessed to have family willing to help so much with the start of my real estate career, but they seem to think if they gift the money to me with no loan at all, then I am free to use it on a down payment. They will be giving $25k instead of $35k, because they said thy can each gift $13k, is THIS also sketchy?

Steve, they have most of their money in portfolios that are returning a larger % than I could ever offer them. The money they were willing to loan me was in a random CD, getting less tha1%, I am only willing to borrow from them if it is a win win for both of us.

Everyone thank you for your responses! I planned on eventually forming and llc to protect whatever assets, but I assume this makes getting a loan more difficult and at a higher rate. The purpose of me borrowing the money was to capitalize on the lower interest rates.

With that said if I can get me and my parents on the deed together that would seem to be the best option for me right now. I haven't talked to them today, but they live in NJ and I live in FL. Is the option even possibles for us?

And btw, thanks very much for clearing up my suspicions Joel and Robert!

Ok, now that we established that haha, what do I do moving forward? My parents want to help me, I need a bit of help, should I just go into the process with the lender knowing that I have another loan from family, and hope I get a mortgage for the less than $100k that I would likely need leveraged (I am looking at homes in the low $100ks).

@Joel Owens

Sounds like it is sketchy, any ideas on how I proceed? I am not leveraging anything on the property I wish to buy with the family loan.