#real-estate
Real Estate
Real estate accounting, property tracking, and investment management
Component Depreciation: Required Under IFRS, Optional Under GAAP — and When It's Worth It
Component depreciation splits a building or machine into parts with separate useful lives — mandatory under IFRS (IAS 16) for significant components, merely permitted under US GAAP. Here's how it prevents phantom depreciation after a roof or HVAC replacement, and how cost segregation studies and the partial asset disposition election capture similar benefits on the tax side.
1031 Like-Kind Exchanges: How Small-Business Owners Defer Capital Gains on Real Estate
A Section 1031 like-kind exchange lets you defer capital gains tax when selling business or investment real estate — but only real property qualifies since 2018, a qualified intermediary must hold the proceeds, and two hard deadlines (45 days to identify, 180 days to close) allow no extensions. Here's how the rules, boot traps, and 2025 bonus depreciation interplay actually work.
Missouri Just Eliminated Its Capital Gains Tax: What It Means for Business Owners Who Sell
Missouri's HB 594, signed July 10, 2025, made it the first state to fully exempt individuals from state capital gains tax — a 100% subtraction covering stocks, real estate, crypto, and pass-through business sales, with C corporations waiting on a 4.5% rate trigger. Here's who qualifies, what's excluded, and how it changes exit timing for business owners.
The Short-Term Rental Tax Loophole in 2026: Cost Segregation, 100% Bonus Depreciation, and the 7-Day Rule
How the short-term rental loophole lets W-2 earners deduct rental losses against salary — average guest stays of 7 days or less plus one of seven material participation tests move the property out of passive-loss rules, and a cost segregation study combined with the OBBBA's permanent 100% bonus depreciation can convert 20–30% of the purchase price into first-year deductions.
Independent Real Estate Appraiser Bookkeeping: Making Sense of AMC Fee Splits, USPAP Engagement Letters, and E&O Costs
AMCs commonly keep 30–50% of the borrower-paid appraisal fee — in documented cases an appraiser received $205 of an $834 fee. This guide shows independent appraisers how to reconcile AMC payouts against engagement letters, structure a chart of accounts around E&O insurance and mileage, accrue fees at report delivery to catch underpayment, and estimate quarterly taxes off net rather than gross 1099 income.
Self-Storage Facility Bookkeeping: Why 'The Manager Deposited It' Isn't the Same as 'It's Reconciled'
How to keep accurate books for a self-storage facility — reconciling manager deposits against software batch reports, applying lien-sale proceeds (which recover roughly 39 cents on the dollar) against receivables instead of booking them as income, spreading annual property taxes across months, and tracking economic occupancy and RevPAF instead of raw occupancy.
Flipping Houses in 2026: Why the IRS Taxes Your Profit as Ordinary Income, Not Capital Gains
House flippers are almost always IRS "dealers," not investors — flip profits are ordinary income on Schedule C plus 15.3% self-employment tax, often a combined rate over 40% versus the 15–20% capital gains rate flippers expect. How the Winthrop factors decide dealer status, why rehab costs must be capitalized into COGS, and four strategies (including an S corp election) that reduce the hit.
Idaho HB 583: What the New Short-Term Rental Preemption Law Means for Airbnb and VRBO Hosts
Idaho's HB 583, effective July 1, 2026, bans cities from requiring STR licenses, owner-occupancy, night caps, or mandatory property managers — but hosts must still register with the State Tax Commission and remit lodging taxes on stays of 30 days or fewer.
The National Flood Insurance Program Expires September 30, 2026: A Small Business Guide
The NFIP's authority to issue and renew flood insurance expires September 30, 2026 unless Congress reauthorizes it. During a lapse, existing policies stay in force and claims are still paid, but no new or renewal policies can be written — a risk for small businesses closing on property, refinancing, or renewing coverage in flood zones. Here's what happens in a lapse and how to prepare.
Three-Way Reconciliation for Title and Escrow Agencies: How Trust Account Bookkeeping Actually Works
A three-way reconciliation matches three numbers every cycle: the adjusted trust bank balance, the book balance, and the sum of every client file ledger. Here's how title and escrow agencies run it under ALTA's roughly 10-business-day standard, the five discrepancies auditors flag most, and why it's the last defense against real estate wire fraud that cost victims over $275 million in 2025.
The $2.25 Million Lesson: What the RentGrow FTC Settlement Means If Your Business Runs Background Checks
RentGrow paid a $2.25 million civil penalty to settle FTC allegations of FCRA violations: duplicated eviction and criminal records, an undisclosed data source, and mishandled consumer disputes. Here is what the consent order requires, and the separate FCRA obligations — permissible purpose, written consent, adverse action notices — that any business using screening reports must still meet.
Spec Home Builder Bookkeeping: WIP Schedules, Percentage of Completion, and Why Profitable Builders Run Out of Cash
A monthly work-in-progress (WIP) schedule turns four numbers per job — contract price, estimated cost, costs to date, and billings to date — into an early warning for overbilling and underbilling, the cash-flow gaps that sink profitable builders. Spec builders also differ from contract builders on revenue recognition, since homes held as inventory typically use the completed contract method under the IRC Section 460 home construction exemption.