Since tax season is upon us, Chris and Jason are discussing taxes and things you should keep in mind if you have a real estate business. First they remind you to take care of your basics–making quarterly payments and setting …
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Chris and Jason are reminding you about all the fees associated with a rehab project today. Â They go over how to calculate all your costs (purchase, financing, holding, resale) so that you end up with a 15-20% profit, which is …
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Although most residential real estate investment companies are usually smaller solo operations or small groups of investors who purchase properties together, it’s extremely important to understand that there are three reports, key metrics and data that you need to be …
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There are three reports you need to know to run a successful real estate investment business–a Marketing Conversion Report, a Cash Balance Per Property Report, and a Return on Investment Per Property Report.  On this #theREI360show, Chris and Jason discuss each …
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I’ve got bad news for you: You’re an accounting company. No matter what business you’re in. For a long time my business partner Jason and I have been saying that whether you realize it or not, you’re in the marketing …
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I always hate going to eviction court. Thankfully it’s not a place I spend a lot of my time. But last week I was forced to swallow my distaste and travel downtown to the courthouse. My business partner and I …
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At Hard Money Bankers, we always have to be on the lookout for contractors or subcontractors that may try to file a lien against one of our projects, as it can impact the investor’s ability to repay our hard money …
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At its most basic, Basis is the cost of the item. With a simple item such as a vehicle the definition would stop there and this would be a really short post. However, Basis also includes the cost of acquisition and in real estate those line items can be significant expenses. Here’s a short-list of the most common:
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Do you get upset when someone un-friends you on Facebook? Maybe I’m too thin-skinned, but I actually feel dejected when someone “un-friends” me – even if I don’t know the person! I happened to check our HMB Facebook “like” tab …
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Well like all things tax code; not always. In fact, many tax professionals get this one wrong too. Further, the same mistake is pervasive on both personal residences and investment properties.
A thorough review of your real property tax bill will reveal the total is the combination of many different items and it is in those details that the answers are buried. Let’s use an example tax record to take a closer look. Our example property was randomly pulled from HUD foreclosure list.
Review of the tax section reveals that the total tax bill is $6,114. The $6,114 is the total of $3,068 State/County Tax, $2,515 City Tax, and $531 Special Tax. There is also a space for Refuse if the local jurisdiction includes that as part of the total.
The requirements to be able to deduct a real estate tax are: Continue reading
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This week we are going to begin embarking on a journey that starts with the concept of depreciation and leads us to many forks in today’s tax code. We’ll talk about exactly what depreciation is further in the post; but, …
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So you have a property that you have been renting and even at today’s value has a market value higher than your basis; how can you minimize some of that gain? Prior to December 31, 2008 there was a significant …
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Congress is rolling out the reporting red carpet in a big way in 2011 and 2012. While some of these new reporting requirements do not affect real estate investors directly; for the most part, news of the introduction of each …
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By: Jeff Shiller, Esq. Or, the alternate title: How To Own a $240,000.00 Prime South Beach Condo For $4 Per Year. Ever since the 1980’s, I’ve been trying to figure out ways to buy a cheap retirement home in Florida …
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So this week we begin to get into some meaty tax changes. We’ve just wrapped our conversation about how to get caught up on your bookkeeping for 2010. By the end of this post you’re going to realize that the …
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This week we are going to wrap-up our project well before we get into wrapping presents for Christmas. With this final step you will have your basic bookkeeping 95% complete for the year. Won’t it be great to forward information …
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By: Jeff Shiller, Esq. When the catch is sighted, it must be reached with utmost speed. An experienced harpooner masterfully pulls alongside and plunges a harpoon into its back. After retreat, descent and, finally, exhaustion, the catch is plied with …
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First, I hope you and yours had a Happy Thanksgiving! OK, so picking-up from last week’s post you now have gathered several wonderful piles of data. Did you keep remembering additional items throughout the week? Isn’t it nice to be …
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No, I’m not being a pessimist about the direction of the country, the state of the economy or even how the real estate market is “on its back.” These are all viewpoints that remain highly subjective depending upon which end …
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I admit it. I’m a sci-fi nerd dating back to – uhhh – never mind the year. And although I loved Star Trek, nothing could ever beat a campy episode of Lost In Space. I remember thinking I was going …
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By: Jeff Shiller, Esq. What are the advantages and disadvantages of seller-financing a property? If you’re thinking of doing this, make sure you consider several “categories” of issues: 1) tax implications; 2) legal implications; and 3) practical implications. Let’s review …
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By Jeff Shiller, Esq. I recently wrote about a new power of attorney law, dubbed “Loretta’s Law.” I explained about the new form of the POA and the duties imposed on agents. If you missed it, check it out here …
Read Moreffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff fff I went to Target – Nope. fff I asked my greeter at Walmart – Nada. fff K-Mart? Sears? – Negative. fff Google? Yahoo? Bing? – Zilch. ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff Ever since I attended a recent real estate convention at the …
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By: Jeffrey Shiller, Esq. I knew yesterday was going to suck. Any day where I have to sit down for hours and type, format, review, cut and paste a new legal form from scratch, it sucks. On Oct. 1, 2010, …
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