All Forum Posts by: Roshan Taheri

@Brittney Hurley we were able to remove the smell completely and we have two tenants that have been there 9 months now. Here are the things we did that ended up doing that worked:

1. Washed walls twice with water and lemon juice mixture

2. Removed popcorn ceiling

3. Remove everything that soaked up smoke smell - e.g. replace ceiling fans, wash the outlet covers, replaced the doors, drapes, etc. Its important to get anything that retains smoke smell in it out of the property and disposed of.

4. We put charcoal wherever we could to try and help soak up the air smell. We put some in the air conditioning duct work as well, I think that helped get rid of the smoke smell that would circulate through that system. We removed this before renting the property.

5. Primed the entire walls/ceiling of the place with kilz oil based primer. After this, the smell was almost completely gone and as we continued to work and let fresh air come in, the smell went away. After painting and working in the property and having fresh air come in -- it probably was around 2 weeks and the smell went completely away.

We didn't have to replace the tile, we washed it with tile cleaner. For the cabinets, we sanded them down and prime/painted them, replaced all the hardware. The smoker who lived in ours didn't smoke much in the kitchen, luckily. We did replace the appliances, countertops, and sink.

Yeah, we talked about it a little more and I essentially told him that even though its more stressful and a more difficult path, he should take the project on so that he doesn't have to sell as-is. I'm going to try and help him with some of the work instead.

Yeah, I wasn't planning on making an offer at 220K, I just need to figure out a ballpark estimate of costs to see if he's willing to accept a number that makes more sense given the damage. 

@Greg Dickerson so I think the property could sell for $240,000 after it is repaired and the friend said he would like $220,000. I was planning on offering whatever price I could afford to get an appropriate return on investment given the repairs that are required. The problem is that the repairs required for the water damage seem like they could have a really wide range of cost associated with them...so would I just contact a general contractor to come out and look/give an estimate?

I went to look at a property this morning that is owned by a close friend of mine. He seems to have neglected the property for the last 7 years and is looking to get out of the real estate business. The gutters haven't been cleaned in 5 years, so there's one gutter that has detached from the house in the front, and the overflow has rotten the deck in the back. In the attic, the water looks to have gotten through the siding onto the flashing and basically it crumbled/fell onto the attic floor after being saturated...but the siding is still there, but there's just no foil flashing. There's no indication of water damage inside the house/ceiling, but I'm worried about damage that an untrained eye can't see...like wooden beams rotting.

I'm trying to figure out how to go about estimating the cost so that I can make an offer on the property, but I don't really know what the extent of the damage is without having a professional take a look. Who would you recommend that I hire to consult/take a look at something like this before going and making an offer? My friend is worried that if I hire someone to go take a look and he finds something...and I don't buy the property, he'd have to disclose it to anyone who comes along and wants to buy it as-is? Is that true?

Could really use some advice on this one...and maybe that advice is to stay away and let someone who is more experienced take on the deal, which is fine, but I'm looking for any guidance that I can get.

@Logan Allec Ah, okay. So the deduction is not specific to an LLC, but any income that qualifies for it?

I saw the new tax bill passed in December, and there is a change that pass-through entities (LLCs for example) will get a 20% tax deduction. 

Did I read into this correctly? Are any CPAs out there who could shed some light on this or is it just not that simple? I'm just curious if this is an additional incentive to rent properties through an LLC (on top of the liability advantage)?

My partner and I are in the process of fixing a condo to start renting it for the first time next year. We've been doing all the work ourselves so far, relatively low cost stuff like painting and cleaning. We're now at the phase where we need to start spending some more significant money on things like toilets, new vanities, a new range. Do we have to wait another 10~ days to purchase these items in the new year in order to be able to claim them as business expenses for tax purposes? Obviously we could just wait until the new year to make these purchases but I have a W-2 job, so I was planning on doing a lot of work during the holiday break while I have the time. It would be a bummer to hold off on things just because of tax purposes.

Could a similar argument be made for company match of pretax 401-k retirement contributions? Say if you have a match of 5%, shouldn't you put in at least 5% because you automatically start with an instant 100% ROI on the 5% you do contribute? I feel like you can just earmark that small "un-accessible" amount of your net worth for later years when you have access to it without penalties.

This is a rehab to rental. The property will probably be rented from $1,000 - $1,200. I think we're going to shop at habitat for humanity for replacement doors and go with 6-panel throughout the place.