About a year ago I took a class with Tom Lundstedt in Wichita Kansas. He teaches weird things like firing your accountant and bifurcation. Yet, these two tips have become great discussion starters in working with investors in real estate.
There, of course, has to be a valid reason for firing your accountant. Also, if you do your own bookkeeping, you probably aren't going to fire yourself. But, checking to see if you or your accountant are making use of tax saving advantages, proper accounting methods, and understanding investment startegies is well worth your time. There are very few Realtors who take the time to learn these methods through courses like Tom's. Fewer still are the Realtors who put into practice what they have learned from his instruction.
Tom came up to me after the class and said, "I can tell you're really going to put this information to use." I don't know whether it was the questions I had asked during class or whether he saw my gears turning in my cranium but I had made up my mind to offer investment property classes to buyers interested in building wealth through real estate investment.
Bifurcation has been written into several of my contracts which provides a tax advantage primarily to investors but also can benefit owner occupied purchases. While the details and significance of this process are too in depth to go into here, below is a cut and paste from a contract I closed on yesterday.
Buyer requests $140,000 cost to be broken down into the following: $9,000 personal property, $2,750 land improvements, $115,000 for building, and $13,250 land. The significance of this step allowed for a tax savings for this buyer in the amount of $676 per year.
Give me a call and bring some friends to my free investment property classes held in four convenient Douglas County Kansas locations (3 in Lawrence and 1 in Eudora).
Thanks!
Rob Lang, ABR, ePro, GRI Realtor®
Realty Executives, Hedges Real Estate
300 Rockfence Pl, Lawrence, KS 66049
785-393-2274 (cell) 785-542-1661 (fax)
rob@LetRobDoIt.com (same website name if you want to visit)
;)
;)
Rob,
WOW! Bifurcation...that's at least a 10 center! Heck, I'd be willing to give you a quarter for that one! It sounds pretty important. Maybe if I'd paid better attention at Central I'd know what it meant.
Seriously though (I guess for a moment I'll be serious), I'm going to check with Rick Day on that one. Sounds like a great idea. I sold more investment property in the 70's and 80's than I do now, but it sounds like a tool that I could use in the future.
Thanks!
Lucky :)