The Property Information Form should have spaces for all the basic property information like bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage as well as asking price, your estimated value and repairs needed. You’ll find at least these blanks on almost every Property Information Form.

However, there are a few things that your form may not have, which you should add if yours is missing them.

First, where did the seller come from? If they came from mailing a postcard, you want to know which postcard. If they came from a real estate agent, put down the agent’s name. If a bird dog or wholesaler sent it, put their name down. You need to keep track of where all your seller inquiries come from and so you need a space on your Property Information Form to track that.

Second, be sure to get the property owner’s complete contact information AND jot down their motivation for selling. While many forms will have a place for owner’s contact information, few have a place for why the seller is selling. Often times, structuring a win-win deal requires you to have great knowledge of your seller and why they are motivated to sell. Without this information, you’re only closing a fraction of the deals that you should.

And finally, you need to record the financing currently on the property. As many investors move toward creative financing, knowing about the existing financing on the property becomes much more important. Some Property Information Forms may have a spot asking how much is owed, but few will go into the details of how much, at what rate, under what terms and so on. In the past, many investors have been tempted to skip asking how much is owed, but it is becoming more and more important as credit markets have tightened and some house prices have dropped, leaving many houses with more debt than they’re worth.

So, if you have not been using a Property Information Form, commit to start using one and if your form does not have the additional fields I recommend, please consider adding them to improve your own real estate investing business.

One of the more benefits of owning your own home specially owning rental property is taking advantage of your tax return. For the majority of homeowners this generally involves deducting interest expense and property taxes each year.

There are three major taxes that we pay by law: Federal tax, State tax and FICA tax. The percentages someone gets taxed depends on a number of different factors. But the thing you have to keep in mind is that it is a myth if you think that the more money you make the more you will get taxed in a higher bracket. If someone tells you that, then that means they have no clear understanding of how the federal tax system works.

To better understand how federal taxation works, especially the deductions, let us use an example so we can understand this better. Say, for example, our taxpayer is John. He decides to buy a house in January for two hundred fifty thousand dollars. He does not have any money for a down payment so he will have a 100% loan. He takes two loans: an 80% and a 20% loan. The eighty percent loan has 6.5% interest rate and the twenty percent has an 8% interest rate. So if you do the math, on the 80% loan he is going to be paying one thousand eighty three dollars of interest per month and on the twenty percent, he is going to be paying three hundred thirty three dollars per month.

When he bought this home there were fees associated with the transaction. And one of the fees is the origination fee that is one percent and another one percent for the discount fee. That would be a total of five thousand dollars in today’s market that we normally see the seller pay for closing cost. So even though John did not pay for this five thousand dollars directly, he can still use this five thousand as a deduction.

Again, if you do the math of the interest per month, that will be one thousand four hundred sixteen dollars per month. In a year that will be sixteen thousand nine hundred ninety two dollars plus the five thousand origination and discount fees, you will have a total of twenty two thousand nine hundred ninety two dollars he can claim as tax deduction for that year.
In fact, if you work from your home you may even get additional tax deductions as long as you meet the requirements asked from a person working from home. To qualify for tax deductions, you must have an exclusive home business area. It need not be a full room, but part of the room such as where you have your business equipment and supply. But if you are using your dining room as your business area, you do not qualify for the tax deduction since you use it both for business and personal purposes. Surely, you will be more than happy to check out how much deduction you will get out of all the advantages possible from owning a
rental property.