All Forum Posts by: Jim M.

I love that this site exists too, and I commend Josh for what I'm sure were (and still are) countless hours working on it.

I only have one complaint (sorry).  The site seems heavily slanted toward millenials, and to a lesser extent Gen-Xers.  I'm a little older, and I almost feel out of place here.  There are very few employees (at least the ones I see, on the blogs and the podcast) over 30-something, and most of the guests on the podcast are similarly young.  I mean look, I have nothing against young people, but give us old farts a little love too, eh? :)

Thanks, Nicole.  This raises two additional questions for me:

1. Even if "education" expenses aren't deductible before doing a first deal, what about other expenses like flying to see a property, or even biggerpockets pro membership?

2. Would making an investment on a crowdfunding site like realtyshares.com count as a "deal"?  I have done this already.

It bothers me that you got different answers from different CPAs.  I suppose the tax code does have some ambiguities or grey areas in it.

Well, sure, I am going to spend the money anyway. But if I could get a tax deduction at the same time, hey, why not? :) 

Does it matter that my 1099 income is from a business that's completely unrelated to real estate?

So I am a brand-newbie at this, have not done a deal yet.  I realize that the very first thing I need to do is educate myself, which will probably take several months (which will put us into the next tax year) before I am ready to pull the trigger and make that first deal.  My question is, if I spend money now on educating myself (e.g., books, courses, biggerpockets pro membership, etc.) but don't actually begin investing in real estate until next year, will I still be able to deduct those expenses for this tax year?  Or do I need to have a real estate "business" set up first?

FWIW, I am a W-2 employee and also earned a small amount of 1099 income this year, by moonlighting at the same occupation as my full-time job.  My current occupation has nothing to do with real estate.

Thanks so much.  Looking forward to getting to know many of you here on biggerpockets as I begin my journey. :)

This happened to me almost 20 years ago....as the tenant.  I was living with my girlfriend and we broke up, and I moved out.  We had pre-paid the lease 6 months ahead for a $50/month discount.  There was an early termination clause in the lease that specified that the lease could be terminated and pre-paid rent refunded, but with the loss of the security deposit.  Since there was about 3 months left on the lease, it made sense to terminate and get a net 2 months' rent back.

HOWEVER, when I approached the landlord and told him I wanted to exercise the early termination, he told me (after talking with my ex-gf) that he would not do it because she wanted to stay in the house.  Both tenants had to want to exercise the early termination.

So she got to stay in the house on (half) my dime for the last 3 months.  *****. :)