All Forum Posts by: Mike Reynolds

It may be just me but this sounds like the pea trap is dried out or there is sewage gas coming through the pipe.  That's not a justification for replacing a year old toilet.  I'd require further examination of the issue from a different contractor.  

I just received back my tax prep from my CPA and it includes my first ever 1031 Like Kind Exchange. The CPA is not including an expense for agent commissions and therefore I am showing a taxable gain. For illustration purposes this was the transaction. This was a cash deal for a property sold in Alabama, purchased in Colorado, Texas resident. 

Property Sold, Sales Price: $660k

Property Purchased Sales Price $630k

Realtor Commissions: $30k

I should be showing $0 in taxable gains, correct? 

Is there a publication somewhere that I can point my CPA to? Do the expenses get reported somewhere on Form 8824? 

Anyone know the type of door knob this is? I need to replace since knob falls off.

We can now get you the Texas Pre-licensing courses for free, no strings attached! You don't have to join or commit to anything. This is a really cool opportunity for people. Reach out, my goal is to get 50 people licensed in Austin or Texas this year!

Branson is only growing and is very near the population center of the US (a bit north in Missouri).  There is a large influx of population to Texas, and Dallas/Fort Worth is only 6.5 hours away.  It has 43 thousand acre Table Rock Lake, amazing trophy trout fishing in lake Taneycomo, the Ozark mountains and new attractions that seem to pop up every month.  I'm sold.

If you are willing to put in the effort to find the right deals with correct zoning, or a place with a reasonable expectation of getting a conditional use permit, you can expect excellent returns.  We closed on a 4 bed 3 bath lake house on Lake Taneycomo in early January for $425k.  Investing about $55k, we turned it into a 5/3 and are expecting to gross north of $90k.  This winter we are adding two in suite bathrooms to further increase desirability, and it has an full unfinished walkout basement that we will likely turn into an additional 3/3 unit.

Opinion: Branson has a condo problem.  If you go through the town, it is easy to see how in the past they went all in on condos, hotels and boutique motels.  Now the town is stuck with them like an online retailer that went all in on DVD players and corded headphones when everything has now gone to streaming and Bluetooth...  They now have to skew investment into their aging condo complexes through utilizing red tape on single family homes.  I think this will change over time as the city planners eventually change over, but for now we are stuck with the extra work.

I just notice a few things:

1. HELOCs being thrown around. I see people spending insane money on renovations. Companies are charging 50k a bathroom, 120k+ on kitchens, and new construction is around $450-600 a square foot. I think we’ll see an issue in 5-10 years when principle/interest comes due over the years. 

2. Interest rates rising. Everything is less affordable, when things were already not affordable for a lot of people. 

3. Rental supply crisis. The government is trying to step in, this is a really big issue in my area, not sure about yours. 

4. The average joe is trying to invest in real estate. Everyone and their mother thinks buying anything is smart right now. Nobody is concerned about risk management. And this is what scares me the most, and to be honest a tell-tale sign we are heading in a bad direction relatively soon. Everyone who told me I was dumb for investing in real estate back in 2017 is now saying it’s a smart idea.

@Jack B.

Sorry to hear about all of that. Hopefully it all turns around soon! 

I know the normal stocks statement is that for every $1 million you have you can take out about 4% or 40k a year without taking down your principle. Obviously inflation has changed that (i believe I read an article saying it would be closer to about 35k a year). Adding cashflow from real estate investments can add to that. But I really think the best advice is to find a wealth management advisor where you'd like to settle down and discuss your options. Make sure they have experience with working with REI like yourself because most REI prioritize having a certain amount of cash on hand as opposed to mostly invested. By getting an advisor in the area you want to settle down they'll better understand local tax laws and also have contacts you may need such as accountants to create a better aligned strategy. Hopefully one thing they may recommend is municipal bonds. As REI we hate when rates rise but what that also does is help the bonds market payout (which most are tax free income). I am not licensed in financial advice so I'm not advising you to invest in anything but these are definitely things I would bring up with someone who is licensed to help you out. I hope my 2 cents helped.

Hey everyone I am Ryan from Tyler, Tx I am a real Estate Photographer as-well as a freelance photographer in the custom automotive world, but being around real estate and listening to BP podcast has really lite a fire for me and my wife to want to invest in the Short Term rentals. our plan is to use our equity from our home now to pick up a Vacation rental in the smokies, we are in Texas so I really looked at Broken Bow, Ok originally but that market has sky rocketed in price way out of our budget. once we get the vacation home producing a income, we plan to do some fixing up to our townhome to turn it into a medium term rental for nurse and collage students since we are a 10/15 min drive from both here locally. for some of you veteran investors does this sound like a proper way of going about getting our foot in the door of our investing? 

By the way if any of y'all invest in Texas our southern central regions ever need professional photos taken or your STR me and the wife love Free night stays just saying haha!

Can't predict the future but with interest rates running up as they are, and the feds saying they want to catch up to inflation, I'd say do it now.