Legal and Accounting
“Just Say No!” and Other Guerilla Tactics to Keep You Out of Court
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 have developed a fairly aggressive collection process which we’ve implemented in our property management company. [...]
Real Estate Law: How To Avoid a Mechanic’s Lien
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 loan. Mechanic’s liens are liens permitted under State law to contractors or subcontractors [...]
Depreciation….Whaaaat??
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:
Look Out! Man Overboard! (Free Videos)
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 and noticed that we lost one person last week. Someone who liked us now doesn’t [...]
All Real Estate Taxes are Deductible…
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:
Depreciation…Blessing or Curse?
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, I want to begin with just how many areas of your real estate business are [...]
Exclude capital gains on that rental by moving in?
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 ability to reduce those gains by just moving in for two years. In fact, if [...]
Special-K…1099 that is
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 one is already creating plenty of confusion. With that in mind I’m going to touch [...]
All I Want For Christmas Is My Free Con-doh, My Free Con-doh.
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 so I could wear white clothes year-round and solve crimes in my Ferrari (hold on [...]
Small landlords…meet the 1099!
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 days of procrastinating to the end are clearly over as of December 31, 2010. Beginning [...]
Don’t even bother with New Year’s resolutions in 2011 (final)…
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 to the tax guy in January instead of April? So since we are keeping this [...]
What Do Whaling, The SAFE Act And Dodd-Frank Have In Common?
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 lances, which are thrust into its body, tearing at its vitals. Soon a discharge of [...]
Don’t even bother with New Year’s resolutions in 2011 (cont.)…
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 taking care of this with lots of time rather than cramming on April 14th? So [...]
Don’t even bother with New Year’s resolutions in 2011…
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 of the stick you are on. No, my point is that many of you do [...]
“Danger Will Robinson, The SAFE Act Does Not Compute!”
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 to grow up fighting monsters just like the Robinsons. I soooo badly wanted a laser [...]
Is It S.A.F.E. To Seller-Finance Property?
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 them briefly.
Is Your POA Just a PIA Or Simply DOA? – Loretta Part II (Sorry, This One’s Long)
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 I’ve seen sooooo many deals go bad right before closing because of issues tied to [...]
Does Anybody Know Where I Can Find Uneven Footwear?
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff 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 beach and saw this dire warning, I’ve been on the hunt for this elusive footwear.
Who’s Loretta and Why do I Care?
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, Maryland enacted a new law – dubbed “Loretta’s Law” – which drastically affects the use [...]
