All Forum Posts by: Jim P.

If I go to one of the local tax pros in town, they'll charge around $500-$600 to do my tax return if I have mostly just W-2 income and a rental property. They do a decent job, but they don't specialize in real estate and they don't know much about things like the STR strategy or how to apply a cost seg study. So I tried the BP tax pros tool, and it seems most of the tax pros that use that charge $3000+ minimum for a tax return with no consultation or advice included, or $4000-$7000 (!) if you want them to look at your situation and recommend a strategy (which will probably be primarily about using STR strategy and a cost seg study).

Is it possible to find tax pros who are good with real estate who have pricing somewhere in the middle?  Someone who understands how to do taxes for real estate investors, but is willing to do a tax return with one or two rental properties for say maybe $900-$1800?  And if that doesn't include consultation to answer questions and talking about tax strategy ideas, maybe just a reasonable hourly rate for that?

Ashish's posts here are AI generated.  He's been caught doing it over and over but for whatever reason he hasn't been banned yet.  When you see AI content here, click the "..." and then Report Abuse. 

Jason, you're replying to a post that was 11 years ago.  Also your reply is repeating the same information as what was in Nathaniel's response??

All of Ashish Acharya's replies that I see in his recent replies in his profile are all just AI answers. This one I was able to trace to Gemini (Gemini spit out pretty the same answer with the same phrases when I pasted the original question to it).  His other posts often use ChatGPT.  But these type of answers are obviously identifiable as AI answers from anyone who uses AI regularly.  

Please help to keep this type of junk off of BiggerPockets.  When you see an AI post, click "...", choose "Report Abuse", and report it as AI/ChatGPT. 

Ashish, please don't copy and paste AI content here.  Your posts are immediately recognizable as AI answers from anyone who uses AI regularly.  And I was able to confirm it by asking the same question in ChatGPT and getting pretty much the same thing you copy and pasted here.  All of your posts appear to be just AI generated content, and much of it is irrelevant, incorrect, or incomplete, and not what users are looking for when they want real answers from experts here. 

When people post AI replies like this, use the "..." link to flag it as AI.

Just 2 months ago, Kislay was caught using ChatGPT to generate his answers to tax questions in a a "ask me anything" post just like this one.  He was copying and pasting answers directly form ChatGPT.  I thought he had been banned from BiggerPockets for doing that, but I guess they just locked the thread and that's all. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/1155771-seaso...

By the way, there was a comment where someone speculated that his answers were the same as ChatGPT because ChatGPT learned the answers from his post.  That's not possible because ChatGPT's training data only has online data from 2023 and earlier.  

And here he is doing it again. I think some of his answers this time may be is own real answers. But I took the question about "passive income from NNN" and copy and pasted the question into Bing AI (which I think uses ChatGPT 4), and the answer it gave me was in part identical to Kislay's answer. Including phrases like "let's break this down fundamentally and step by step". He again copy and pasted the answer from an AI bot.

Anyone can try it if they want.  Each time you ask the question, it the AI will give a somewhat different answer, but you should see that enough of it is identical that it's clear that he copied the answer from the chat bot.

The last thread he did, he copy and pasted every answer from AI. This thread he seems to be answer some questions himself possibly, but still using AI for a lot of the content of the answers. By the way, I think that's also why he didn't have a clear answer to the straight forward question "Can bonus depreciation be applied to a foreign STR?" The answer is it can't. But ChatGPT also gave a similar rambling answer with similar phrases like "you'll need to investigate the tax laws of that specific jurisdiction".

Ok, I wasn't going to say anything, but this thread just keeps on going.  

The answers in this thread are being generated with ChatGPT.  As soon as I read the first answer, I could tell immediately it sounded very much like a ChatGPT answer.  The answers are nicely worded, but they're also generic and often are missing key information in response to the question that a tax professional specializing in real estate would likely know to mention.  

Just to check, I copied and pasted some of the questions in to the free version of ChatGPT 3.5, and I got back answers that included nearly identical responses.

Here is an example from an answer that the CPA replying to this thread posted:

Congratulations on your house hack! It's great that you're thinking about optimizing your tax situation. Here are some steps you can consider:

1. Depreciation:
   • Residential rental property is depreciated over 27.5 years. You can deduct a portion of the property's value each year to account for wear and tear. The land value is not depreciable, so it's important to allocate the property's value between the building and land. This is typically done based on the property's assessed values.

...

Starting to work with a CPA early in the process can help you set up good financial habits and ensure that you're taking advantage of all available tax benefits. They can also provide guidance on structuring future real estate transactions for maximum tax efficiency.

Here is a snippet from what I got when I copy and pasted the question he was answering into ChatGPT 3.5:

Congratulations on your first house hack! It's great that you're already thinking about optimizing your tax situation. Here are some considerations, but keep in mind that tax laws can be complex and subject to change, so it's advisable to consult with a CPA for personalized advice.

1. Depreciation:
   • When you own a rental property, you can depreciate the cost of the property over time. This includes the building and any improvements. Land, however, is not depreciable. You can use the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) to calculate depreciation.
   • Residential rental properties are depreciated over 27.5 years. For example, if your property (excluding the land) is valued at $275,000, you can deduct approximately $10,000 per year ($275,000 / 27.5).

...

Remember, tax laws can be intricate, and your personal circumstances may affect how these rules apply to you. It's crucial to work with a qualified CPA who can provide guidance based on your specific financial situation and local tax regulations.

I don't know if Bigger Pockets has a policy on people using AI to generate answers to questions.  But it seems to me, if someone is doing that, they should at least disclose it. 

Your property value increase is not the same thing as what your tax increase will be. We don't yet know what the tax rates will be, but I think there is a good chance they'll reduce it at least somewhat because the budget shouldn't need to grow by as much as property values have. And I think they actually can't increase the tax income that much because of a recent state law. But I'm not certain about that. 

@Jabbar Adesada

When we were renting it by the room we found most of the prospective renters on Facebook Marketplace.  We also listed it in the past on Zillow, Zumper, Craigslist, etc, but when it's by the room it seemed to only get any leads on Facebook Marketplace.  Is there a better place to advertise when renting by the room?

Yeah we have a 4 bedroom house near ACC and not far from UT, but I just haven't seen any price premium by renting it out by the room.  It was difficult to find renters willing to pay $675/room (and almost no one at $700/room).  But we could easily find people to rent out the whole house at $2800/month (which is $700/room).

I'm curious how the numbers are different for people who say they have been able to make more by renting out houses by the room.