All Forum Posts by: Brad Z.

good thread, I often think about the same thing. in the cincy market, you can go to a nice area of town but two streets over is bad news, its like that all over the city! you just have to spend time in the areas and learn the ins and outs, i think mike is spot on with "blending in". I have also found that if you are in a lower income area but go in and clean up a property and get reasonable tenants in, people tend to move on and stay away from the property, it can be hit or miss. I would not live in some of my rentals but that is because I simply prefer to live in a nicer property. I do feel safe going to do maintenance, collect rent, etc.... If i bought property where I would want to live as investment, I would lose my a$$

a 40 gallon gas hwh will run about $350 plus installation.

a 60k-80k btu furnace could cost around 600-1000 plus installation

if it has an outside unit too, that will be an additional expense.

try google voice for a virtual phone #, its free and forwards calls/vmails as needed.

Paid 8k for a duplex, 18k to rehab, appraised for 85k, currently rented for $1030, its been one of the best rentals I have.

thanks Jon, I was thinking along the same lines, I enter all my expenses into qb for each property but don't distinguish between costs that should increase my basis vs. deductions, that gets pretty hairy. Does anybody have any recommendations on how to keep them seperate in qb 2009? As of now, i am showing a massive loss because I have all of my rehab costs entered in vs just a few months of rent coming back in. I have rehabbed 2 properties in Q4 of this year so I have alot of expenses but not a lot of rental income because of timing in the year, although all units are leased.

I belive a good way to approach it is repairs are tax deductable but improvments increase your basis. I still dont know about "repairs" during rehab though, ex split water lines, reseal roof, etc... I know new flooring, new front porch, etc.. are improvments

When rehabbing a property, at what point do the expenses become tax deduction? I realize that it will raise your basis, which will effectively reduce your tax burden when you sell.


Here is an example. I bought a duplex for 8k and spent 12k rehabbing it in October. Can I deduct that 12k against other income since its under the 25k aloowable loss if my AGI is less than 100k? I have a meeting with my accountant this week so in preparation for the year end so I will know more then but wanted to see if I could get any insight on this board.

Here is one last question, lets say I have to replace a toilet next year, is that $100 expense deductable at that point or does it increase the cost basis?

Well here is hte story

I had a family of 5 apply for a huge 3 bedroom unit we have available. They seem very nice and responsible from first impression. The wife however, has an eviction from 6 years ago that she did disclose and told me it was just as much the landlords fault as her. I believe it settled in court in her favor. She explained the long drawn out story but anyways im not sure how to treat this. They have solid proveable income, nice people, no smoking/pets but do have this prior eviction on her record from when she was younger. My gut is actually telling me they would be ok but cant get past the eviction. Im not sure if Im worried about her being evicted or if she has the experience of going to court and fighting a landlord. We run a very stand up operation and should not have any problems but dont want to have to end up in court either if she they cause us problems. Thoughts?

thanks Jon! so for tax purposes, i dont record my mgt payment every month as an expense, i just enter the interest paid at the end of the year as a deduction.

I got to thinking about mortgage payments and how they are recoreded for tax purposes (P&L). Is just the interest portion tax deductable or the entire payment? Do you record your entire mortgage payments monthly as expenses or just enter the interest paid from the tax form at the end of the year as a deduction?

I have a commerical acct at hd and use there bidroom pricing which usually equates to a10% to 15% savings if you spend .2500. I go and submit the quote for all materials and have my gc as an approved purchaser on my acct. I receive a call every time he checks out for my approval. I try to knock out most of hte purchases in the first trip or two and I go with him if Im available. At that point, if he goes back on his own, its usually for small odds and ends. It seems to work very well but again, a level of trust needs to be established.