All Forum Posts by: Kevin Trumbull

Congrats @Billy Maloney!!  Good to read these inspirational stories, I actually took some real action today to moving myself closer to purchasing my first rental property.  I can't wait to post something like this in the near future.

Keep us updated on your progress, how your current rental does, and on your next deal!

D'oh, sorry I meant 2015. :)

I'm planning on purchasing an investment rental property in the next 6 months, and I'm wondering if there are any tax benefits to completing that before the end of the year.  Like will that purchase help out at all with any of my taxes in 2014, or do those benefits pro-rated?

(I feel like I'm not asking my question well, but I'm not sure how to ask it, so maybe somebody will get the gist of what I'm asking, or ask me questions that will help flesh out my question)

Great thread, been wondering the same myself. I was using the 10/10/10 rule (vacancy/maintenance/capex) to be conservative, but the more numbers I see, starting to think that's a little too conservative, especially for me since I'm planning on buying a fully rehabbed turnkey.

Looking forward to seeing more numbers from people.

I'd first like to note that I am not yet a landlord, but looking to buy a property to rent out before the end of the year.

I have some questions on how you handle your vacancy/maintenance/capex reserves?  For example, let's say you conservatively budget 10% for each one.  I'm mainly talking about what you do with the actual cash, not how you track it necessarily (that's another discussion).

• When your rent check comes in on the 1st, what do you do with each of those 10%'s?  Do you combine them all in to 1 reserve account, and draw from that single account when needed?
• Let's say a year goes by and you don't have any vacancies or repairs, do you start to draw money out as investment capital towards the next deal (essentially adding to net cash flow)?
• What do you do when you have 10 properties?  Do you put all of the reserves in to a single account and draw from that general account to use on any other property, or do you keep a separate account for each property?
• What do you do with the actual cash?  Do you shove it in to a savings account?

#AskBP

Thanks!

-Kevin Trumbull

@Dmitriy Fomichenko Not too late at all, thank you for the warm welcome and the lead with Marco.

@Marco Santarelli Thanks for the reply, very encouraging to hear that my initial plan seems sound.  I'm definitely going to be looking for cashflow in the $200-300 range, just want to keep my expectations and my numbers conservative, especially on a first deal. :)  I sent you a PM as well.

Thank you all for the great advice.  I'm feeling better about the path I'm planning on taking.  I think I'm going to do a turnkey this year and then look in to possibly house hacking a multi early next year when we plan on moving.

Ahh, OK great, thank you!

I'm a new to-be real estate investor and I was wondering if I will be able to write off travel expenses if I do not own a company.

For example, I'm looking at purchasing a property outside my local market.  I do not currently own any investment properties yet (just my primary residence).  If I fly out to a city to check it out, drive around to get a feel for the neighborhoods, and maybe meet with a local company to check out available properties, can I write any of that off on my taxes?

@David Wiser Yes I do own my home right now, have about $100K in equity (purchased with FHA 3.5%, based on comps it's appreciated nicely), we are planning on selling and moving to Oregon in the next year, and have been toying around with the idea of going down the multi-family owner occupied route... both my wife and myself do have some reservations about that with having a small child and hopefully another one in the next couple of years. That is an option, I was thinking that would be deal #2 though.