All Forum Posts by: Doris Jin Huang

@Zach Lemaster thanks for the informative response. Good to know you have quantifiable criteria backing up the ratings. Have you ever collected data on the average renter turnover for your class A and B neighborhoods?

Thanks,

Doris

@Bruce Lynn We are looking at Kansas City, MO and Indianapolis. I’d think rent ready houses will mostly be sold at retail price, thus not too different from what you can get through a good turnkey company?

Thanks,

Doris

We are looking to buy our first out-of-state rental property from Rent to Retirement. Just had an initial conversation with them and lined up a lender. What I’m most nervous about long distance deals is not knowing the area, so I’m doing my own research on the neighborhoods and compare with the information provided by R2R. I’ve come across places where they classified as a “B neighborhood” while other investors/realtors on BP recommend to avoid due to high crime. I understand ratings are somewhat subjective and neighborhoods are also changing, but wanted to see if people who had worked with this company generally find their neighborhood classifications accurate?

Thanks,

Doris

@Dave Foster Appreciate your input Dave. The gain is no more than 500K but good to know you can take advantage of both! I'm also trying to understand if the deferred tax is "accumulative" - let's say we have $100K gain on house A and we 1031 exchange it for house B, a few years later house B also appreciates $100K and we are selling it, are we going to pay capital gain tax on $200K? And what if house B loses $100K in value, does the lost cancel the tax on the $100K we originally gained from house A?

@Sam G. I agree with you Sam. If it's a pure financial decision I'd sell it in a heartbeat. Tax considerations aside, Coops are not investor friendly - we have too much equity in it, and borrowing against a coop is difficult, which leads to a very low ROI. However there are also personal considerations involved which makes the decision less straightforward.

@Jason Lee Thanks Jason. It's in Rego Park, Queens. What are your thoughts on the market in that neighborhood? 

We have a Co-op apartment that used to be our primary residence but now being kept as a rental. We are debating whether to sell it now to take advantage of the 2-out-of-5-year rule on capital gain tax exclusion, or to keep renting it and potentially do a 1031 exchange in the future. My questions are:

1. Do Co-op apartments qualify for 10-31 exchange? I understand in 2017 tax code changed to narrow the range of qualifying properties. 

2. If the answer is yes to the above, can you exchange a Co-op apartment for a multi-family house?

3. Does "like-kind" only restrict the nature of the property or also the value? More specifically, can you 1031 exchange a $300k investment property for a $1 million investment property?

Thanks for your input.

Best,

Doris 

Good points David. Just came across one with leaky iron sewer pipes last week. Thanks for the insight!

@Justin Brown thanks for your response, Justin. This is helpful. And we do need help from local experts. Will send you a message.

We are looking at some very old houses (built between 1870-1900) in Lehigh Valley, PA. I generally don't think old houses are necessarily a bad idea for buy and hold, but depending on the way they were built & materials used there could be serious issues that are oftentimes area specific. Could anyone with experiences in the area share thoughts on what to look for during inspection?

@Basit Siddiqi thank you, good advice. Would you mind elaborating your last point - what are the tax reasons that we should track our time for?

@John Underwood Thanks for your response John. I wanted to have a better understanding of what deductions we qualify so I know what expenses to keep track of and later provide to the accountant. “Business” and “investment” are treated differently from what I read. Do you use any apps to manage expenses, and how do you communicate with your CPA?