All Forum Posts by: Julie Dike

FMV is tricky. I tried to determine it when we moved out, but there were literally no comps. Whatever reasonable assumptions I used to determine our depreciation vanished with our 2012 records. Would a tax assessment be a reasonable approximation?

There is no scenario in which we end up with a real gain by selling the property this year.  If we're looking at a phantom gain and a nasty tax bill . . . shoot me now.  

Hello, Nicholas!  I've already learned a lot reading this thread.  Thank you!  

Here's my situation:  my husband and I bought our first home in 2004 for $170k.  in 2012, we moved, and the house was unsellable due to market conditions (too many newer, bigger homes available at foreclosure prices).  We've been renting it out for 6 years, consistently losing money.  This year, we are hoping to sell it.  Best guess, it's worth around $110k.  

Due to various computer issues, I don't have my tax records from 2012 or 2013.  I've claimed around $3k of depreciation in each of the following years.  How do I calculate our loss on the sale of this property, and is there a limit on how much we can claim against our W2 income?  

Easy bonus question: I joined BP last year for the webinar archive.  Can I deduct this as an educational expense on my Schedule E?

When I said zoning issues, I meant that areas zoned for single family housing often don't allow you to convert SFR to MFR. If you're living in a home and rent out a basement or spare room, it's usually no big deal. Residents are allowed roommates. But that doesn't mean local authorities will turn a blind eye if you move out and try to rent it as more than one unit. There are two houses on my street like that, and when they were rentals, the landlord rented them as single units, occasionally to tenants who subleased the extra space. They're now owner-occupied -- rumor was they weren't cashflowing.

Many neighborhoods have zoning issues when it comes to renting out a basement of a single family home.  As a house hack, you can usually get away with it if the neighbors don't care, but as a landlord, you're more likely going to be looking at renting out the whole thing to a tenant who subleases the smaller part.  

I haven't really seen anything like what you're looking for here in Nova.  

Hello, I'm new here and frequently confused.  Is there any place I can reference a list of real estate terminology?  I keep running across phrases I haven't heard elsewhere (1% rule, 2% rule, 50% rule, 70% rule . . . ).  How do I get up to speed on the lingo?

Following.  It's the same issue here in northern Virginia (although not AS bad), where the market has just outpaced reality.  It's hard trying to figure out how to network elsewhere.