Real Estate Investing & Taxes

Investors are often interested in the real estate professional status for tax purposes because having that status allows one to write off greater losses against their income.  Whether or not you qualify for the status depends upon how much time you spend on real estate activities. 

Any time you have a question regarding tax code, you should consult a CPA that is knowledgeable specifically about real estate investing.  Not all CPAs are up to speed on the specific codes that benefit investors, if you are investing in real estate, find a CPA that is. 

It is also important to remember that tax codes are always changing and your tax situation, income and other factors are most likely changing from year to year.  This is all the more reason to have a good CPA that understands real estate investing (and your situation) so that they can solve the good old tax code for you!

Choose where you want to specialize and spend your time.  In other words, don’ try to know and be an expert at everything in your real estate investing business.   Unless you have a true knack for studying and understanding tax code, this is one area that is best left to the professionals.

Loans -Risk Based Pricing/Loan Level Price Adjustments

Allow me to introduce you to the latest in the mortgage business for 2008 – Risk Based Pricing or Loan Level Price Adjustments. Basically, the concept is that additional points are being added to loans based on how risky the borrower is. These are not the discount points used to buy down the interest rate, these are additional points making the loan cost more. The lower the credit score of the borrower, the more points and cost.

Yesterday I was chatting with a lender at First Horizon about a potential “refi” on an investment property. Here’s the scoop or an example on what the points are looking like now based on the offerings from First Horizon:

Full Doc
680 & Above – no points
679-660 – 1 point
659-640 – 1.5 points
639-620 -1.75 points
under 620 – 2.5 points

Stated Income Loans -Must have a minimum of 680 score
720 Score – .5 point added for stated income
680-720 – 1 point added for stated income

This is a far cry from the old days when as long as the borrower had over a 620 credit score, loan costs were basically the same.

Thankfully, real estate investing provides creative ways to invest even without having great credit. However, when you are ready to refinance those deals that didn’t require credit to purchase them, credit becomes very important. If your credit is not the best and even if you are successfully investing without credit, begin working towards improving your credit score. There’s tons of great information at www.myfico.com.

Nancy Spivey http://www.transformit.net