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Happy New Year!! - 12/26/07 11:34 AM
Happy New Year to all!!
I certainly hope that you are looking forward to 2008 as much as I am! I have set some terrific goals, and I am really anxious to start out the new year to reach them all!
Having gone thru some changes this year (changing brokers and improving my online presence), I really anticipate an awesome year in 2008!!
Good luck to all in this changing market!!
… (2 comments)
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Real Estate Agents owning rental property - Can you take the tax loss? - 12/21/07 09:26 AM
I am sure that come of you Active Rain real estate agents also invest in real estate as rental property. You may or may not be able to deduct your rental losses... READ ON.
Rental losses are considered "passive" losses, and usually can only be used to offset passive income on the tax return. Now rental losses can be deducted EVEN IF (added together for all rental properties) they exceed passive income up to $25000. I put up an earlier post on this topic (more of a general public kind of post) that you may want to check out... Deducting Rental Tax … (2 comments)
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Deducting Rental Tax Losses - Can you do it? - 12/21/07 09:21 AM
In my rental experience as a real estate agent in Central Virginia, most of the time, the first five years or so of rental property ownership generates a tax loss. Usually, unless it is a property that the owner purchased for very little because of the physical condition and put a lot into fixing it up prior to rental, it is about year 5 or year 6 before increased rents begin to generate income for the landlord.
Now comes the real issue, can you take these losses on your tax return? Answer...MAYBE. (Maybe is the classic answer when dealing with taxes, because … (0 comments)
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Do Your Clients Know You? - 12/16/07 11:13 AM
One of the most wonderful tools that I use now with all of my buyers and sellers of real estate in Central Virginia is called a CAREERBook. The CAREERBook was created by Barb Schwartz, the creator of home staging, in an effort to help her clients get to know her better.
I had been planning on putting together a brag book for myself to be left at listing appointments with potential clients, and then I happened across this product when I attended a course on home staging.
Once I obtained this product, it took some time to get everything together, but I must … (4 comments)
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Rebates - Yes or No? - 12/16/07 10:04 AM
One of my corporate partners would like to include me in a booklet that they hand out to all of their employees (over 7000 employees). This booklet is a booklet of vendors, most of which offer discounts to the employees for using their services.
I definitely want to be in the book, and I have offered a rebate to their employees as incentive to use me as their real estate agent.
My question is... What are your experiences with these types of situations? I have been advised both ways for various reasons that I understand, but I am looking for your opinions.
… (3 comments)
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Real Estate Law Course Coming Up!! - 12/15/07 12:58 PM
Just ordered my final broker course on the web today... Real Estate Law.
Having already completed three out of the four required courses necessary in Virginia to take the brokers exam, I am excited to hopefully finish up my broker studies soon!
I tend to go the self-study route, as it works better in my crazy schedule with my wife working full-time and taking care of the little ones (Mr. Mom, we call it!)
I will have to post updates on how it is going.
Can any of you that have taken the Law course in Virginia give me any idea of what I am … (1 comments)
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Cell Phone Spam!! Yuk!! - 12/15/07 12:54 PM
How many of you have started to receive text messages on your cell phone that are sales propaganda, the equivalent of junk e-mail? Over the last two weeks, I have started to receive several of these.
Knowing that text messages end up being an extra charge to my bill, I contacted my cell phone carrier today to see what I could do about this situation. I use Verizon Wireless. They directed me to a website http://www.vtext.com/ where I could login to my account and set preferences to block all text messages coming from email or the web, and told me that if … (5 comments)
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Real Estate Education - 12/14/07 08:22 AM
In an effort to become the best real estate agent in Central Virginia, I have been improving myself through reading.
There are two books that I have found that have been quite helpful to me.
First -- How To Become a Power Agent in Real Estate : A Top Industry Trainer Explains How to Double Your Income in 12 Months by Darryl Davis gives a twelve month program in twelve chapters, one chapter for each month.
I have read this book twice already and working on my third time. The first time to gain a quick understanding of the material and begin to apply … (2 comments)
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Improve Yourself! - 12/10/07 09:45 AM
This time of year is a good time for real estate agents to do some self reflection.
At this time of year I always look at myself and ask myself the following questions...
What can I do to make myself a better Central Virginia real estate agent?What areas of my game are the weakest?Last year when I asked myself those questions, the answer was Home Inspections. I felt like whenever the home inspection took place, I knew less than anyone present. All I could say was, "uh huh" or "duh", and I could not contribute anything to the conversation.
So what did I do … (2 comments)
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Active Rain Works!! - 12/07/07 03:55 PM
Last month I did a post on House Flippers - The Tax Consequences, which I thought was a very informative post. Later that day after posting, I received an email from a writer, Mr. Christian Toto of the Washington Times, who just happened to be doing an article on House Flipping. He wanted to draw from my expertise as a CPA and real estate agent in Central Virginia.
After talking to him on the phone, he apparently found what I had to say worth quoting in his article, Flip Side of Remodeling.
Even though he decided to call me Dave (I have been … (7 comments)
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Brokerage Change - 12/06/07 07:15 AM
Hey guys!
I have not been posting or answering posts for a few weeks now, because I have made a change in brokers. For me, such a decision is not an easy one to arrive at, and it really does involve a lot of deliberation and thought. It was really difficult, but I feel that it will be the best for me and my growth and the service of my clients.
I did not realize how much work went into making such a change, as all forms, marketing materials, brochures, websites, now all have to be changed. I have been so busy trying … (13 comments)
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Dale Campbell's Real Estate Blog on all things real estate in the Central Virginia Area.
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