All Forum Posts by: Aaron Millis

Hi all,

I bought my current property almost a year ago and am finally getting to the point where I am about ready to rent it out. This will be a house hack. It is a 4 bedroom 4 bathroom house so I will be living in one of the rooms and renting out the other 3. I live in a college town so there is about a 99% chance that I will have students as my renters. I have listened to basically every podcast pertaining to landlords and tenants multiple time ( and even the ones about other topics) and am slowly reading through the book on managing tenants by Brandon Turner. 

I know my next step should probably be to get really familiar with Alabama's landlord tenant laws, and getting a lease set up, etc. Basically I just want to know if there is 1 specific place I could go to for people who are soon to be landlords, so that they can get all of the info they need to take the steps ending in having tenants in their property. Any typical things that some newbies might typically leave out of their lease that you seasoned vets would recommend? Or just any advice in general?

It's been somewhat stressful just getting my property ready up to this point, but I understand that the real difficult times are yet to come. But I'm excited and ready for it!  Thanks in advance to anyone who gives their advice or 2 cents.

So when I was becoming educated about REI in general (reading books and listening to the podcasts) I was lead to believe that living in a property and renting it out at the same time (house hacking) was advantageous because you could claim homestead for your taxes which is considerably cheaper than not doing so. Well I bought my current property, that I plan to house hack, from someone who was an absentee landlord and the taxes were not homestead. I just called the revenue office in my county and they told me that if I planned on renting my house out - even while living in it- that I would not be able to claim homestead and I will have to keep on paying as if I didn't even live there... Unless I completely missed something, this goes against everything I learned about this subject up to this point. Does this sound correct to y'all?

Nicholas,

I purchased my first property in Feb of 2017. I know that depreciation and depreciation recapture are things, but I'm still not positive what each is or what they mean. I did not have my property rented at all in 2017 so what can I expect regarding my taxes for my property? Also if it has anything to do with my income I had low income in 2017. Thanks.

Hi all, I had a quick question that is probably simple. I bought my personal residence in march of 2017 and I purchased it from another investor. He was not currently living in the home so he was paying higher taxes. I have been paying the same amount as him even though I've been living in the property since day 1. Is there any of the overage that I can get back on my taxes?

Okay I got it now. Thank you guys for clarifying!

So just based off the title "Home Equity Line Of Credit" I assumed a heloc was a line of credit based off of the amount of equity that you have in your home. When I called a bank about it they said they do 89% LTV of the appraised value of the home. This doesn't make complete sense to me at the moment. I know a heloc is basically a second mortgage but i didn't know you could have more funds available than the amount of equity in your home.

@Julie Marquez That is not actually something the crossed my mind, and I don't actually think that I have ever heard of that degree plan! Is it an undergraduate degree, and is that the route you chose in college? Or has your experience in RE just lead you to believe that it is an advantageous choice? Thank you for your input!

Thank you to everyone for your input!

@Alexander Felice I hear you. What did you get your degree in?

Hi BP community,

I am not really new to BP I have been involved for over a year now, listened to basically every podcast (many more than once), read a handful of the books, and actually purchased my first investment property earlier this year. Over the past few years it has become more apparent to me than I have a passion for entrepreneurship and more specifically for real estate investing. 

All of that being said I recently got out of the military and am looking forward to the next chapter of my life. I have started going back to college with the plan of getting a business degree, really just because in my mind that makes the most sense. I do not think that a degree is extremely necessary for me to obtain with goals of being a full time real estate investor one day, however because of my situation with the military I have the GI bill available - which basically means I can get to go to school for free. So not going seems like it would be a waste since I know that the cost is the reason most people might not go to college. -- Also the govt pays me money for living along the way, so all the more reason to go to school

My main question is if there is anyone that can relate to my situation what type of degree would you propose that I pursue?? Im currently going to Auburn University and the have business degrees such as finance and entrepreneurship... but I do not know which one makes the most sense with my goals in mind. Also not to get too into the military benefits but I have a lottt of free schooling available, like roughly 8 years worth.. not that I intend to go to school that long.

I understand that it takes time to become a full time investor and that I will need income to bankroll my investments, and to receive loans etc. I do not know what type of actual job I will want in the real world I just know I want it to be related to Real Estate. I could go more in depth but this is already longer than I wanted it to be. Thank you to anyone who puts in their 2 cents.

-Aaron