All Forum Posts by: Cameron Skinner

hire a good tax professional in your area, not one of those franchises someone with some letters behind their name and owns some real estate of themselves

remember passive activity loss can only be taken against other passive income so if you hold it forever and it becomes profitable past your current year depreciation you can take the a portion of your carryover loss to bring you to zero passive income.  To confuse things even more if you actively and materially participate,  you can write off some of your passive income against ordinary within certain income limitations and the alternative minimum income tax.  And to complicate things even more if you qualify as a real estate professional your passive loss becomes ordinary income loss ending at it against your ordinary income. All right good tax professional in your area, 

every state is different but in Florida your primary residence is judgement proof. Google "OJ Simpson asset protection". Meaning they can't take your personal home.  Most states have similar statutes but usually cap out at around 250k.  When it comes to lien law it's when the Lien is recorded not when the money is drawn out.  Especially in bankruptcy court if they can track where you sent the money you took out of your line within 2 years of filing bankruptcy they can call it an illegal convence and get the money, say you gave it to your mom.  Even some cases where they took it back from charities.   What they can do and what is cost effective to do are two different things.  The big thing with asset protection, is to just make it so hard and costly to go after your assets that it's not worth it. And a Heloc would help with this, because they know you can draw the equity out of your home and go on a expensive vacation, or gamble it away or whatever.

As long as your not running a business out of your solo 401k you don't have to worry about UBIT.  A Sdira can trigger UBIT if you have a loan but solo 401ks don't, but you cannot personally guarantee the loan.  Some stuff on the forums get these completely different plans mixed up.  While I do very little tax work anymore and am not taking any new clients I'm still licensed to practice and am very failure with real estate investing in qualified plans.  Feel free to message me or call if you have specifics planning questions. Happy to give advice. Hope this helps, good luck!

Google "cost segregation PDF". You can find a few examples of cost segregation analysis online,  might help you decide if it's worth it.  In new construction you can write off site improvements over 15 years and special mechanical over 5 years double declining balance.  You can also do it on any real estate rental but you would need a "engenering study" wich are expensive, so usually only use for large commercial projects or apartment complexes.  It's kind of a pain to break everything up, and run and keep up with multiple depreciation schedules on each property and don't forget you have to recapture your depreciation when you sell the property at ordinary income rates witch may kick you into a higher bracket on the sell on the back end costing you more and total tax, so you need to consider your exit strategy.  I have used cost segregation on commercial  project as a way to help attract high net worth investors since they get a bigger tax wright off in the first few years.  Hope this helps @Account Closed, good luck!

@Giovanni Isaksen is correct no one can predict the future and what trends will grow and what will wither and die.  The best way to weather the next down turn is to grow conservatively don't over leverage and have large reserves.     

simply no, not a good idea.  The technology is not good enough yet to overcome the cost to make financial since.

I used to say if I'm going to go broke it won't be on a duplex it will be on a skyscraper, then I teetered on bankruptcy and almost lost it all during the financial crash. Now I move slower and more conservative. Warren Buffet only averaged a 22% a year growth rate to be the richest man in the world, proving slow and steady wins the race.  Goals are important in this business, but be carful not to over extend and over leverage to meet an arbitrary number. If you bet the farm on every single deal it only takes one losing deal to lose the farm.  Hope this helps, good luck!

If I were you I would look at creigslist it's usually easy to pick out the "mom and pops" try to identify someone who has multiple properties, Maybe they have one unit available in a larger complex they own, or they have a website listed, which usually means they own multiple properties.  Call them up tell them your looking to get in the business and you would like to take them to lunch and get some advice.  You may have to ask half a dozen to land one meeting.  At lunch ask them how they got started? Best deal, worst deal, what they would do different ect.  Most people love to talk about themselves. Don't ask about mentoring, if you have a good connection ask them at end if it would be ok to call them in future if you have specific questions.  And just let relationship grow naturally.  Mentoring happens organically, you would not go up to a stranger asking them to be your best friend, or go to a party and announce you are looking for a friend and will trade helping them move for friendship.   

Ps read or listen to audio book, "How to win Friends and Influence People" before you meet them.  Hope this helps, Good Luck!

@Col Watt  Take it from someone who has bought and sold more property than most real estate gurus combined read the richest man in Babylon, the millionaire real estate investor and listen to all the BP podcast.   This will give you more knowledge than you could ever hope to get from a guru. Trust me I have seen most of their material there are no secrets. They all just rehash and repackage what is available in books or free online.  Wade Cook one of the original real estate gurus once said Something like I never made millions in real estate but made 10s of millions teaching others how to make millions, he's currently in federal prison.  Take the 7k put toward your first deal. Hope this helps, good luck!