All Forum Posts by: Bob Smith

 Jason- Can you post the link to your Birmingham data? I'd love to see that. Sounds interesting. Thanks. 

I have a little cash to invest and was looking to buy a SFR in one of the oft-mentioned cash flow cities... Indy, KC, Cleveland, etc... but I keep getting lured to places like Phoenix as it's always nice to have an excuse to make a tax deductible trip to a city I like. Am I the only moron who thinks like this? Assuming not, where else would be a good spot to buy? I already have Vegas, Texas, Florida covered.

Any update on this thread? Would love to hear what people have done and how their cities are doing.

 That's good info. Thanks for sharing Mike.

I like the burbs usually but don't know Indianapolis. Anybody have any good recommendations for areas to look at for rentals or maybe small mid-sized multi-family? Prefer new'ish SFR but would be interested to hearing about nice multi-family.

Own about 30 doors with a few different property managers. I work full time and don't have time to really review the property managers. Was thinking about hiring a VA who can review the PM expense reports and also compile all of them into one QuickBooks account for the tax guy. I think I am looking for a bookkeeper with real estate experience to keep an eye on things. That is, not just a "bookkeeper." Anybody had any luck hiring someone like this through elance or other online place? Anybody have any leads? Any idea what I should expect to pay for someone like this?

@Wade Alderson I would agree cash flowing real estate is not rocket science but I would say it's not quite as automatic as you describe. It can certainly work out as you describe but it's not quite as simple as getting interest at a bank or even dividends on a stock. I would keep researching as it sounds like you are. Read every story on BP, and elsewhere, and remember you are mostly hearing the good stories and not the negative ones. Real estate need new roofs, new HVACs, etc... and then a tenant leaves in the middle of the night with your copper wire. Diversification is king.

Oh ya, you were talking about how bad 401ks are (and most agree the fees are very high) but you will be in an IRA (as you indicate) and fees in an IRA are what you make of them. To take all the money out as a lump sum and pay the tax is probably the most foolish financial decision you can make. Just do the self-directed route. Yes there are fees but you'll have so much more purchasing power if you want to buy real estate. Really, if you cash out a mil IRA and pay the tax on that lump sum... you are a moron and I don't what you anywhere near me.

I really appreciate all the replies.

The worker-bee CPA, who did the work, did not apologize or anything other than to say she would fix it and did so within a few hours.  Maybe that's why she is a worker-bee and not the owner of the company though!?

I haven't contacted the main CPA/company owner yet as I wanted to digest the situation and consider all of the thoughtful replies here. So thank you all. I'll contact him tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get a more apologetic answer from him.

Again, thank you all.

Curious what is acceptable.  Like many of you I have complicated taxes. I have 30+ properties, sales, purchases, multiple entities, different tax years, K-1's to send, k-1's received, W2 income, cap gains, cap losses, etc....

To keep things simple I will give an example of the type of thing that has happened on two recent tax returns:

1) It was an issue where an appraisal mattered.  Basis issue. I sent one appraisal and later got a better appraisal and sent that to CPA. They used worse one in rough draft.  At least $15k tax difference to me let's say.  Luckily I noticed.

2) Including property no longer owned in tax return. I assume they took the income from the year previous but we are not talking a trivial amount of money.  Let's call it $20k of income that I didn't really get. Luckily I noticed.

My CPA is not cheap so it's not like I am using someone based on cost. I am using a high level professional with a good reputation but I am concerned they are just too busy and the underlings don't get it done right.

For those that have complicated returns what is the accepted amount of material errors to see in a tax return?  Is one per year too many? I think so but want to make sure I am not being unreasonable.

What do you experts say?

Thank you  @Terrance Thames.   That is excellent information.

Has anybody gone to Anderson's asset protection seminar? It sounds interesting to me but want to make sure it's worth the dough.  Here's a link. It's 2 days and in Vegas. Always nice to have an excuse to go to Vegas!  :)

https://andersonadvisors.com/asset-protection/