All Forum Posts by: Zane Cress

There are lawyers and services you can hire to do this for you. They typically take a portion of whatever they save you as their fee. You can also appeal directly with the local tax assessor office in your city. They have a form you can fill out and submit, might be able to do it online depending on the city. If this is for a SFH and you have owned it for a few years then you can probably get a hold put on the tax increase for a few more years. Say you paid 100k 6 years ago and have done nothing to improve the property value. Maybe your last value assessment was for 250k. If houses near you are now selling for 300k then the local assessor will just blanket raise all properties in value based on the years sales. You could argue that your property has not materially improved and does not meet the same value as the most recently sold properties. In theory you could get a hold put on your taxable valuation at 250k for a few more years. Ultimately you can only hold it down so far and the government will eventually get their money.

 I think "unlikely" is a nice way of saying it. You are not going to qualify for active and will not get any extra depreciation. Unless you are flying from MN to FL every time the place needs to be cleaned then a cleaner is going to spend more time in that property than you. "Managing" on a listing platform is not going to pass the IRS sniff test and good tax preparer will not let you claim active to get extra write offs. Them helping one person try to save a few dollars will jeopardize their entire practice and every other person who does the taxes at that office. 

Listen to the Tax Smart REI podcast, they have a ton of episodes on the STR strategy and how to qualify for the hours. Your best bet is probably to get your real estate license and start actively being a real estate professional or buy a STR in your market that you can physically be at on a regular basis.

Goal is to streamline the portfolio and take advantage of trapped equity.

Planning to sell 4 condo units and 1031 into one or two multi family properties. Targeting more cash flow on my current equity. 

Do one flip of a property in a premium neighborhood. 500k entry with a 800k ARV to hold long term as a rental.

From a business perspective I want to help 5 investors purchase in my market. 

If it's a single member LLC then they prefer to have an officer sign, which would be you and your legal name. I have had to sign docs as "Zane Cress - Officer" before. Depending on your financial status and the health of the LLC and investment it holds they may require a personal guarantee, which would also be you signing as your legal name. This is usually the lender who wants to guarantee they can get paid if the LLC has no money and you still do. The LLC in this case is more just asset protection and not having your direct name listed on the county tax record. If the final title is closed in your personal name the title attorney can have you deed it over to the LLC later. This is a good time to choose a closing attorney you trust and like, start building a relationship with them and bring them business. Used mine for every purchase over the last 8 years and I get a ton of free advice from them.

 Yes all in Athens. I have 2 bedroom 2 bathroom set ups. I am seeing more and more people who want 1 bedroom studio set ups for a lower price per month. They are often solo travelers so unless they plan on having people come visit the extra bedroom is pointless. Just started seeing this about a year ago when contract prices started to trend down for healthcare workers. 

What is the cost of your Refi? What fees are the charging you? If it costs you $20k to do a refi right now is that worth it on the payment difference? If you are willing to wait we are most likely going to see 100 basis point cut over the next year and a reduction in the spreads that lenders are working off of. These two factors will get investor rates down to a reasonable level. I think waiting until October or November would be ideal. The Housing Wire Daily podcast has great insights into rate movement and forward estimates. Sometimes a slow and steady plan is better than being ready to jump on a deal. There are millions of houses and just as many deals, there is always another great deal just around the corner.

I don't think a RE license course is going to go deep into creative finance. My online license course barely mentioned regular mortgage financing. It's more terminology and making sure you don't accidentally discriminate somehow.  You can learn almost everything you need about that on Youtube. Start with Pace Morby and then go down a rabbit hole of videos for 20 hours and you should be able to understand most of it. 

Most likely insurance is going to want the whole house not a shared portion of it. You will have to furnish and make sure to check the rates you can get for MT and STR in your market. It may not be worth it if your long term rent and cash flow are adequate. The other strategies will take more time and effort, which need to be factored into the cash flow difference. If you make $500 more a month but have to put 10 hours extra each month into the property will it be worth it to you?

Have 11 MT rentals. I started using FF years ago and it has been mostly reliable. You do have to wait for people to look and then engage them yourself most of the time. Typically the tenants are good because they are 99% travel workers on there. I have had an issue with one person in 4 years. Last year I had to start doing 30+ day listings on Airbnb to fill some openings. Have used FB groups for travel nurses and college rentals as well but with limited success. If you are a pro member and get access to Rent Redi you can also list on multiple sites for very cheap. I have had a few tenants come from the Zillow listings. Keeping one full is pretty easy. The more places you have the more lines you need in the water at all times. 

People usually hate moving a washer and dryer around so having one in unit would be preferable I think. Should get you slightly higher rent as well. A decent used set would not be very expensive and should last a few years.