Q: Can you please help me. I am 32 years old and earn $63,000 a year and invest 8 percent of my salary into my company’s 401(k) plan. I have $90,000 in cash in the bank. I also have a $45,000 certificate of deposit earning 4.5 percent that matures in 2 years. I have a [...]
Q: I previously wrote to you and asked about investing in real estate. Since that time, I've moved from thinking about buying a single family house or two to actually purchasing and rehabbing about 45 units located in about 15 buildings. We chose multi-family as our desired real estate investing platform and are now unloading [...]
A 1031 exchange is a common way for real estate investors to preserve the profits from their sales, but the complicated rules of Section 1031 of the IRS Code can confuse the most experienced of investors. As investors are again selling their properties at a profit, it may be time for a refresher course on [...]
Q: I wish to sell an investment house I own personally. Do I need a license? I live in Washington DC. Also, can I give the buyer financing (it would be seller-financing) to buy the home. Would I need a license for that as well? A: Good questions. In most places, if you sell, lease, [...]
Q: My neighbor has a tree very close to my border that is over 50 years old. It is a really big tree. It is so big I feel that it really belongs in the forest. If it comes down on my house, it will demolish it and could even kill me if I am [...]
Q: I was recently divorced and bought a home. However, I have a rental property in an area which is quite depressed and where crime has increased. Homes in that area are now selling for about $15,000 and there are few renters moving in. I need to sell the rental property as it has now [...]
Between 2002 and 2007, real estate investors and developers built tremendous wealth and preserved significant equity by using tax-deferred exchanges under Section 1031 of the IRS Code. Section 1031 exchanges became commonplace in most transactional real estate planning and resulted in exceptional tax-mitigation opportunities. During the past three years of economic downturn, however, exchanges were [...]
This is the time of year parents are rushing around, frantically buying up supplies for their children returning to school. I remember the days of cutting up brown paper bags to make neat, clean covers for all our precious schoolbooks. Do you still do that? Recently, we talked about the tax-free days in certain states, [...]
Last Friday, as we headed off to Labor Day picnics and other end of summer gatherings, it was ironic to consider the latest employment figures. On a holiday weekend devoted to the American worker, the Bureau of Labor Statistics under the U.S. Department of Labor announced zero job growth during the month of August 2011. [...]
IRS released the new mileage rates for business use of your car, effective July 1, 2011. From July 1 – December 31, 2011, your new mileage rate is 55.5 cents per mile. From January 1 – June 30, 2011, it was 51 cents per mile. The rate for moving and medical mileage increase to 23.5 [...]
