Advice you would give to yourself

[Zachary Negron]

Hi all,

For those experienced investors, if you could go back and in time to your early days in real estate and could tell yourself only one thing.....what would it be?

[Jim K.]

@Zachary Negron

I would largely second a large part of what @Mike Cumbie just said. One big thing would be to urge myself to talk to a full-service CPA firm either before or immediately upon acquiring the first rental. I entered the business of DIY landlording suffering under the delusion that understanding the tax advantages of owning investment properties wasn't really all that important for me starting out right from the start. I also didn't quite get that a real estate business's accountant isn't someone you only need to talk to at tax-time.

And I say this having then read a book on the tax advantages of owning real estate. My problem really was that I didn't perceive at the time that the tax advantages are so important for a guy working on his own properties largely alone or with occasional help.

Federal lawmakers understand that the small, local landlord is improving his community by doing something that the government simply can't do affordably. They've written a tax code that bends over backwards to help him. Not taking full advantage of all the incentives they provide for the work and the life is setting yourself up for a fall.