All Forum Posts by: Tatyana Shevnina

@Mark Gruetzmacher @Dave Toelkes - take a look at this blog post. 

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/07/10...

Dave, do you think that Mark's situation may still qualify for capital gains treatment/investment property rather than Sch C/self employment, because it's a one off flip (Mark, correct me if I'm wrong) purchased with an intention to rent?

Sad. Just goes to show that it's not enough to be able to buy a nice big property. Need the means and/or skill to maintain it. 

Thanks for sharing, @Rick H. 

@Mark Gruetzmacher 

Once the house is fixed and sold, you and your sister should be able to report your respective shares of the gain on your separate tax returns (provided that your sister is a legal owner as well). Usually, when a house is sold, a tax form 1099-S is issued showing the amount of sale proceeds. If there are more than one legal owner, I think that each owner will get a 1099-S for his/her share of the proceeds. In very general terms, the difference between the sales proceeds and (acquisition price +cost of improvements+expenses of acquisition and sale) will be your gain.

If you are concerned with a tax bill, you can work with a tax professional to do some tax planning to see what additional tax you will be looking at and possibly plan to make an estimated tax payment.

@Account Closed On the last podcast, Brandon and Josh recommended this company 

https://biggerpockets.mysmartmove.com/

My management co did the background check for me, so I don't have first hand experience.

Thank you for the feedback, @Jon Holdman and @Albert Bui. I have been and am currently looking at refinancing. The reason I didn't go through with a refi before was because I would be facing a rate hike, at least for a 30-year fixed. That cancelled out most of the saving from being PMI-free. The condo used to be a primary home and now it is a rental.

I am going to look at different refi options again and weigh the rate hike against not having the PMI and escrow.

Just found an answer to my question - strange though, because I'm pretty sure that I had the option of not having an impound at the time of refi. Also, wasn't required to have the home insurance go through the impound.

Required Mortgage Impounds - Since low down payment borrowers are considered to be a higher risk due to their lower personal stake in the property, lenders want some level of assurance that the state will not seize the property because of non-payment of property taxes, and that borrowers won't be without homeowners insurance in the event that the property is damaged. An impound account ensures that the only person who will become owner of the house in case of default will be the lender.

My lender would not let me cancel my impound account until my LTV is 80% or less. Their LTV is based on the appraisal from 1.5 years ago (much lower value) rather than current FMV and they wouldn't revalue the property based on market increase. I asked if I could take out RE tax from the impound and leave PMI in, the answer was still no.

Just wondering if that's the standard industry practice (not allowing the owner to start paying RE tax themselves) or if these are lender-specific policies?

Thank you, @Amit M.  That's a great membership price - SFAA is 4-5 times more. Glad I asked :)

Appreciate any feedback on the membership in the San Francisco Apartment Association. I'm considering to start self-managing my condo in SF and SFAA looks like a great resource for SF-specific forms and landlord support. How was your experience with this organization?

Thank you!

If I were to buy it without a tenant, I'd do something in the middle. Make it look nice and fresh, replace worn-out items and make sure everything is in working condition. Wouldn't go for a standout unit. May shoot for $1600-1700 in rent and 5-10K in upgrades depending on condition (the less the better). 

I'm curious about other responses, so monitoring.