All Forum Posts by: Nick Vogel

For the STR Loophole, the IRS evaluates material participation on a property-by-property basis. This means that only the hours you personally spend on activities related to a specific short-term rental property count toward the 100-hour material participation requirement for that property. Hours spent managing or overseeing other properties cannot be aggregated to meet this threshold for the STR Loophole. As a result, it can be quite challenging to satisfy the material participation tests if you utilize a property management company and reside out of state. However, it may still be possible to meet these requirements under certain circumstances.

If your average rental stay is under 30 days (transient basis), it should be treated as commercial/nonresidential property and depreciated over 39 years.

Depreciable basis should be the amount you paid for the property plus any additional capitalized costs, not the appraisal value. For the breakout of the land versus building, look at your local county property tax assessment for land vs improvements and allocate the basis proportionately. Compare this to what the appraisal is showing. 

I work for a large CPA firm and perform cost segregation studies. Shoot me a message if you want to learn more!

@Dave Skow Thank you for this response. This definitely helps me a lot. I will keep you posted!

@Dave Skow Thank you for your reply. The ARM is 6.625% and the FHA I am not 100% sure about yet. Waiting to hear back. I agree with your con on the FHA with the expensive UFMIP which makes the payment higher than it needs to be. I would be able to handle to slightly higher down payment on the 5% down loan. However, with the adjustable rate, I would have to refi within five years. But if rates go down in the next couple of years, which I believe is very possible, a refinance would be almost certain anyways. I do not specifically know the answers to your questions, but I believe it the loan is a in house product, so it may be lender paid mtg ins. But I can ask to see how the interest rate is affected if I had to pay the PMI. Thank you for your help!

@Jason Wray @Paul Defngin Thank you for replying to my post. I have learned a lot from your conversation about the lending process. For the loans I am talking about the 5% down ARM does not have a prepayment penalty, but I do believe it has the "12-month occupancy requirement".

@Leo R. Thank you for your advice. I will take that into consideration!

@Bradley Dosch Thank you for your advice! I will definitely consider the FHA loan. The only thing that concerns me with that one is the very expensive MIP. But then again it would be nice to be in a fixed rate loan. However, with the 5% down ARM I could avoid the PMI, but have to worry about the 5 year ARM which I would have to refi before 5 years. Thank you for your consideration!

Hello all! I am looking to purchase my first small multifamily property through house hacking. I am looking at two different loan options for an owner-occupied property. The first being a 3.5% down FHA loan. The second is a 5% down, 5-year ARM with no PMI. Both are 30-year loans. I am curious what loan option I should pursue? What are the pros and cons of both? I have a good understanding of both loans; I am just looking for others' input. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for your input!