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Bringing Your Family Into the Business

By
Commercial Real Estate Agent with The River Rock Group, LLC

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a great article explaining how many stock investors were taking advantage of the depressed stock market by transferring stock shares while their values were low, thereby reducing their exposure to the 45% tax rate on gifts above $12,000, and allowing their heirs to benefit from the appreciation as the market recovers. While you're at it, it's also a great time to start thinking about how to involve your children in the growth and preservation of your real estate assets.

Many property owners dream of finding ways to incorporate their children into their real estate businesses whether it's through

  • Teaching young adults the value of hard work by hiring them to clean and show units after a tenant leaves
  • Employing an estate planning strategy to transfer wealth and save on taxes, by sharing ownership shares from your LLC, or
  • Off-loading some of the burdens of property management to free up more time for travel.

These can be fun issues to discuss at holiday get-togethers or at formal "Financial Summits," which my family likes to hold.

If you're beginning to consider these issues, and would like a better understanding of your property's position in the current marketplace, I'd be happy to provide a complimentary evaluation, looking at market rents, comparable sales, and economic conditions to help you come up with a strategy for your property. That way, you'll be armed with information when you sit around the table with your family, ready for the important business of preserving wealth in today's changing marketplace.

 

- Emily Cressey

Real Estate Agent, Specializing in Apartment Buildings in the Queen Anne/Magnolia, Capitol Hill and Beacon Hill Neighborhoods of Seattle, WA

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