That said their customer service and auditing department must not have computers because its very difficult to speak to them.

Kristine Marie PoeI'd say you're right, except that closed transactions show up in audits after closing, it's not the closing agent responsible for such matters but the selling broker.......in their absence, the seller.

The QBI deduction is only allowed if you are a "trade or business", and the tax courts have resolved that rental real estate is a trade or business.However, @Vince Mathis if you are simply a passive investor in real estate and you do not claim the QBI deduction, then you don't have to issue a 1099.Keep in mind that if you don't issue a 1099 and take the QBI deduction, then you run the risk of the IRS auditing your tax return and claiming that you deducted the QBI erroneously, and charging you back taxes and penalties.When it comes down to it, you are paying taxes, why shouldn't your contractors pay taxes? 

I'm certainly not an accountant and would defer to those here on BP.Rob K-I do pride myself on paying very little in federal income taxes and I showed several letters of communication with the IRS on previous audits in the bigger pockets summit last year and also in the center of my book.There are several ways of deferring income tax and additional ways to significantly reduce the amount due.

The hole is boarded up now with a couple of jacks placed for support so the whole building doesn't collapse.I will be checking into public adjusters and structural engineers so we have someone more impartial than the insurance company's guys determining repair costs.Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

This perhaps would lend strength to your "intent" argument should one of your 1031s ever be audited.

Having gone though an audit from the IRS myself, I cannot tell you enough times how happy I was that I had one.

However, in many cases you likely won't be able to obtain by-laws until you are under contract.I would have your attorney include a specific "HOA" rider in the contract for this exact reason- It basically would require that you have ample time to review the governing docs of the HOA, such as master deed, current by-laws, current year’s budget, and last two years of audited financial statements, association meeting minutes, etc. 

You can get away with a lot of stuff until you get audited.

Applications for anything are an audit trail in legal matters and lease applications are the source documents for real estate lease agreements.