All Forum Posts by: Frank Z.

@Michael Plaks, @Brian Schmelzlen , @Jana Cain , @Matt Ward

I would like a long term relationship with a CPA / Tax planner who I can bounce ideas off of throughout the year. I've got a bunch of questions already prepared and a plan I would like to talk through based on my research. 

I've got questions around:

- Using a Partnership LLC to take advantage of the 20% pass through deduction

- Creating an LLC as a holding company for my rentals and using accelerated depreciation to defer taxes so I can fund more deals

- Creating a SoloK and maxing out the 55k/yr contributions

- Accelerated depreciation on improvements to the portion of my house used for AirBnB

- How to offset more of my W2 income (currently the majority of my income)

Feel free to reach out if you think it's a good fit. If you send me a PM i can send you my personal number or if you give me a number where I can reach you I will give you a call. Thanks.

Looking for a CPA for Tax Planning that is specialized in rental real estate and self directed IRAs. Preferably someone on the west coast. 

Looking for a local CPA that has a good understanding of rentals and Solo 401Ks. Any recommendations?

I bought simplisafe because of this post and a few others on bigger pockets and after a month I figured I'd add my review.

TLDR: Not great, may get a refund

Installation (5 stars):

Easy to do! Peel and stick the items. 5 stars!

Setup (4 stars):

Took about 30 minutes to setup following the instructions.

Uptime / Connection (1 star):

I'm in Atlanta and my signal SUCKS! I have the system tuned to alert me every time someone arms or disarms the system. Those alerts come to me MAYBE 50% of the time. I'm betting if someone breaks in there's a 50% change I won't know till the next day. Makes the entire system pretty much useless. 

When I use the app I cannot communicate to the base station most times. Every time I'm in the house the system is complaining about not being able to connect to different sensors in the house. This seems like a pretty big flaw in an alarm system. 

I've contacted simplisafe and they are going to send me a Verizon module instead of a T-Mobile module it comes with. I'm hopeful that fixes the problem. They also told me the base station should be at least 3 feet off the ground and next to a window for the system to work properly. Sounds like they skimped on quality parts. My cell phone works perfectly even when I'm sitting in a chair away from a window.

Customer Support (2 stars):

When you call in there is no system in place to tell you how long the wait is or how many people are in front. You get music and you wait. May be 10 minutes, may be an hour. 

I called in on New Years weekend when I was setting up my alarm. It's reasonable to expect tech support is not working on weekends, especially new years weekend. However, there was no message saying "call back later" it just transferred me straight to hold music. I gave it about an hour before I hung up. Sure enough they were closed and never bothered to update their phone system to go to voicemail or add some kind of notification for those calling in. 

Honesty in their Advertising (1 star):

Go to their website and you'll see they're advertising a 4.5 star amazon rating and a 5 star google rating. On amazon they're rated 3.5 stars and on google best I could find was 3.5 stars as well. 

I love this idea! I think that's what I'm going to do. Thanks!

Thanks for all the replies so far. I didn't think to mention this before but all the walls in the house are plastered. 

@Wes Harding If only! there's two toilets. But they're both very close to the sewage line. Also, the walls are plastered, but maybe it makes sense to run the water lines through the ceiling to get into the space and then just have the sewage go through the concrete slab? 

@Marshall Downs I think you've perfectly identified a key problem. I don't know if in that section of the house there was ever a crawlspace actually. Everyone from the inspector to the contractors have been calling it that but that side of the house has less room underneath than the other parts with the crawlspace. Maybe it could be a shorter crawlspace? I could probably fit but it'd be a bit tight. The exterior walls are all concrete block. Do you think it would make sense to make a tight crawlspace? You mentioned triple checking, and I'm very new to this, what should I be looking for / worried about?

@JD Martin Thanks for the advice! I'll be sure to use PEX. It sounds like a better product.

Yeah 24' with no post I figured would be expensive. The 4400 includes a post in the middle. I've gotten 4 quotes in so far btw: $4,400, $4,500, $14,000, and $22,000.

Interesting aside, the two quotes in the 4k range were from contractors that came out and looked at the wall and took their own measurements. The other I sent pictures and measurements too and they just threw out the price without ever seeing it in person. 

Yeah that's what I meant to say, galvanized not corrugated. Thanks @Marshall Downs.

I'm worried if I backfill and pour after changing the pipes I won't have access if something goes wrong down there. Right now it's not too big a deal as I haven't laid down the floor, but after that, yikes - sounds expensive to get back down there for repair. I was hoping there might be a better option?

I'm curious @Michael Plante what would you expect to pay? 

Bought a house in probate recently for a good price. It appeared that about 30% of the crawlspace under the house was inaccessible. Theory was there was a hatch under the carpet somewhere that could get you in, but didn't know where. 

I have corrugated pipes that have rusted from the inside so there's very low water pressure in the bathrooms due to the rust buildup. Plumber recommended replacing them completely with PVC. Today I had a contractor try to cut a hole into the inaccessible crawlspace area but turns out there is no crawl space! 

The house was built in 1958 and after laying all the pipes for the two bathrooms, they filled that part of the house up with some dirt and poured concrete on top, then put the floors on top of that.

Has anyone else been in this kind of situation? Any recommendations would be most appreciated.

I spoke with a friend with a lot more experience in construction than I have and he suggested renting a jackhammer to bust all the concrete up, have the plumbers do what they have to do, and turn it into a crawlspace so it's accessible going forward.