Currently when I meet with real estate professionals, interview contractors, discuss investing in real estate with friends/family I cannot write off any of the expenses on my income taxes - some of my friends who own businesses write off a reasonable # of meals (where business is discussed), they also write off their vehicles and other expenses that pertain to their businesses.Any insight from REI's who have experience? 

@Matt Lockwood,From the mortgage perspective, which is what I know...Get on payroll as a salaried W2 employee for the foreman job, or it's a 1-2 tax year wait until you can get in the game yourself as an REI because of mortgage guidelines.Write off as much depreciation as possible (as much as your CPA says you can lawfully write off), but no meals and entertainment (unless your CPA says it's unlawful not to write it off). 

That property wasn't a deal for us, but we had a nice meal before heading back to Little Rock.

Nobody gets in good shape by lifting a dumbbell or eating a healthy meal one time, ten times, or a hundred times.

One never knows when your next investor might be sitting at the bar or a couple looking to move a house quickly may be enjoying their last Burlington based meal.  

I'll be in and out of here, grabbing a meal and taking off again.Truly happy to be part of this,Luke

The father was telling the son that in this particular meal, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed!  

Mileage is typically expensed at $0.55/mile (or whatever the IRS mileage rate is now), meals you can expense 50% of the cost, repairs you can expense up to $25K assuming you make less than $100K.

before you even get this far you need to know why you're doing this.. if it is for quick money, you're going to be out of the game before you even get started. a few people get lucky and get a meal ticket quickly, but it takes perseverance to keep going. show a mentor that you're hungry for information and they'll keep feeding you all you can take.thoughts?

A few of our tenants have also become our friends over time and we have shared holiday meals together.