All Forum Posts by: Larry Watson

In NC you are limited to 5% of the monthly rent for late fees. I would charge the highest rate I could charge. My policy is that rent is due on the first and late after the 5th and evictions are commenced on the 15th. I started using RentMonitor a few months ago and it automatically adds the late fee on the day you want it to. No more partial payments no more excuses, no more running to the post office and bank. I require from here on out that all my tenants must use this service to pay their rent. They also have great technical support to get you setup and you just pay as you go. $3 flat fee for every transaction. Well worth the money if you ask me. And one last thing. Never, Never, Ever waive late fees. Take it from me, every time I have in the past it has always come back to bite me.

Thanks so much Brandon. You wouldn't be interested in doing our taxes? I dont know if being another state makes it difficult to do that or not?

I started this new thread because I wasn’t making myself completely clear about my tax situation. I have been told that since my wife has W-2 income that is well above 200K per year we have to suspend our real estate rental losses because there is a threshold that you cannot take deductions after you reach a certain amount of income.

We have some rental property that is in our name for now and file those on a schedule E. We have an LLC that has the rest of our rental homes as well as 7 apartments. I usually have a total of around 35K in losses every year and after a few years I have a total carryover of 90K in losses.

I understand that if you are not a real estate professional you can only deduct up to 25K but since I sold my office equipment business in February of this year I now work full time in our real estate business. We have 12 rental homes along with the 7 apartments and I manage all of them. I also make some of the repairs myself while sometimes call in professionals for repairs I don't care to deal with. In addition I work full time with a Real Estate company since I got my NC Real Estate Brokers License in March of this year. I also spend a good amount of time searching on the MLS and driving and hunting homes to add to our portfolio. I don't think it is a problem that I qualify as a full time real estate professional so my losses should be unlimited.

My question that I really want to know is it true that I must keep suspending our losses in real estate or can we use these losses to offset my wife’s W-2 income?

I sold a business that I had in February of this year and I manage all of my properties that I own as well as looking for other rental property and this is the only job I do. I dont take a salary I just reinvest into either my current properties or use to acquire more.

I am in need of a good CPA. My current accountant says that I have to suspend most of my real estate losses do to the fact my wife is a high W-2 wage earner. I know you are limited to $25K if you are a non professional but now that I do this full time and have my Brokers license my losses should be unlimited. Due to my wife's position with her company are looking for a CPA that can officially sign off on our taxes because they have to be legit. 

Feel free to reach out to me for any advice. Glad you are taking steps to the most secure financial investment in my opinion. I was a small business owner too for 26 years and sold it this year to do real estate investing full time.

send me the info.

What I always put in my listings  to weed people out are what I call prequals such as you must make at least three times the rent. No smoking. Criminal background check.  Non refundable application fee.  Excellent rental history a must.  

Hey Don. I sold my office equipment business after 28 years and have been investing for 8 years now. Funny my wife is From WV, see that you invest there. Would like to speak with you sometime to share ideas. I am not here to sell you anything I am just wanting to expand my portfolio and learn more. You can go to my web site to reach me since they dont allow me to post here.

Link to my rental web site