All Forum Posts by: Bruce D. Kowal

Not really in my wheelhouse, as I am a CPA.  But in attending some marketing seminars I ran across the work of Dean Jackson, who is a certified genius in e-mail marketing.  And his specialty is Real Estate Brokers.  You could do worse than spend some time listening to him on Youtube, or checking out his personal website, deanjackson.com, or his simple program to help brokers boost leads.  gogoagent.com.

He has gained some notoriety by his "Nine Words to Revive Dead Leads" formula for an e-mail subject line. Basically, it's "Hey, John.  Are you still interested in buying that property [or whatever the need might be]"  It's deceptively simple, and powerful.  Just make sure you don't mess up the followup. 

Check him out.  Let me know if he helped you.

One question I always have of anyone selling a wealth building strategy, whether it's a surefire way to trade options, or someone peddling the best algorithim for trading stocks and bonds:  if you are so smart, why do you need to work at selling the product? If I were wildly successful in implementing any strategy, I would keep quiet about it and enjoy my life.

It's like the tale about the gold miners in California during the Gold Rush of 1849:  the only ones who made real money were the ones selling the tools and supplies to the miners.  

Just sayin'

What a fascinating back and forth this thread has been.

The Title Companies know what is happening.  Drop by any and all.  They will appreciate future referrals you may give.  Plan to visit ten.  Make ten new friends.  Get all their names and email.  Start builidng your mailing list.  That's important.

Check out anything written by Dean Jackson.  Start with this app, for example:  http://www.gogoagent.com

From Dean you can learn how to use internet in your marketing.

Learn ten to twenty killer questions and responses to use on Sellers and Buyers.  Never be at a loss for words.

I am across the river in NJ, near Jersey City.

Not sure if this link will work:  https://www.meetup.com/find/?l...

Go to Meetup.com.   Sign in.   Put your location as Las Vegas, and in the search box enter Las Vegas.  Let me know how that goes.

A few items here I want to point out.  

[1]  If you already use a CPA/EA , then they have a tax program which is flexible, and he can run a bunch of What-if scenarios for you, for the current year.  A lot of Members have these What-if questions, and frankly, the answers are with your current CPA/EA.   

[2]  This is the time of year for CPA's to run tax projections for their clients, especially if you have a complicated tax return.  Lots of properties and transactions.  Stock market losses too.  If you have unrealized market losses and realized gains from sale of properties, time to plan.  The point is that you should never be surprised when your CPA tells you that you have a balance due.  You should already know that before Jan 15, 2023 at the latest [that's the last day for estimated tax payments without penalty].  

[3]  If you had large gains already this year, and are on salary, you might want start paying taxes on those through increased withholding.  Why?  To avoid the penalty for underpayment of taxes.  i.e.  the Govt like to get its money close to when you earn it, not when you get around to it.  And it turns out that IF you pay taxes through withholding, even though you might have earned it in January [a bonus?], by paying through withholding IRS deems it be timely paid.

If none of this makes sense, let me know. 

If someone is giving you free advice, you will get what you pay for.  Guaranteed!

What the H-ll is Mr. Burke smoking?

While Mr. Murphy is entirely correct, there is a lot of complexity in jumping in as an S-Corp and getting into reasonable compensation issues.  Congress almost did way with this tax dodge in July.  There are some added compliance costs.   You will file two corporate income tax returns, IRS and your State, in addition to your two individual income tax returns.  Those business returns are due on March 15.  And those will require a bookkeeping program such as QuickBooks. You are in the world of double-entry bookkeeping now.

And the big question now is, are you making taxable income from the LLC?

Join a local Meetup group which has local real estate investors.