All Forum Posts by: Matthew Samson

Hi All. So excited to be a new member in the BP community! 

My parents in-law bought their primary residence in California for ~ $350k and now it's worth over $2mm. Obviously, their capital gains are well beyond the $500k primary residence exemption. They want to minimize their tax and/or refinance burden, to keep as much of the capital gains as possible to help fund their retirement. They would also like to keep living there for the next 3-5 years, before downsizing. 

So my question is: how can they minimize their tax burden? Luckily, my wife and would be in a position to buy their house from them at fair market value, if that is the best option? We would also have the liquidity to explore other options. 

Of course, we'll be looking to consult with a CPA on this! We would love to get some directional help from the community first, so we can ask better questions moving forwards! 

Thanks both for the warm intros! 

- @Max Ferguson Definitely eager to start with something relatively simple to get some skin in the game and learn firsthand. We'll be listing our primary home for rent in about a year, so adding value to that (e.g. creating a 5th bedroom), and then qualifying for an owner-occupied mortgage in our next city could be a good start. 
- @Michael Dumler Hahah it was time for a pivot away from my full time job in tech anyway. Luckily my wife is a physician who just finished residency, so she can take a turn being the primary breadwinner. 

RE strategy: I'd love your feedback! Aside from real estate investing obviously being a great vehicle for long term wealth creation, I actually think that I'll really enjoy the work. I'd be happiest being quite an active investor and property manager.

Of course, given my wife's job there's a also a huge incentive for me to qualify for real estate professional tax status and (if I'm reading things right) maximize our paper losses. For that reason, in the medium-to-long term I like the idea of multifamily residential for the more aggressive depreciation and ability to scale (vs single family). 

Would love to hear your thoughts on whether that makes sense???  

Hi All. I quit my job in tech a couple of months ago and I'm excited to pivot into real estate investing.  I know a lot of people on BiggerPockets talk about real estate investing as a means to an end, but I'm think I might also just really enjoy the strategy, execution, and hands-on work involved. Right now my head is swimming with all this new content, but I'm optimistic that things will eventually slow down. I'd love to connect and really build a community here on the platform.