Beneath The Ramblings

Last night, I was doing my rounds in the bank job's garage when my phone rang. It was my father, Roy. I thought, "Ah shit, here we go again."

I have to call Roy at least once every two weeks. If I don't, he'll call and annoy me, asking why it's been so long since we've spoken-- this adds another 3 unbearable minutes to our talk. Our conversations are usually 7 to 10 minutes of inane banter that is mind-numblingly repetitive. With an hour left to go at the bank job and nothing to do, I figured "why not?" and picked up the call. The first few minutes was him complaining about Hurricane Irene and how my 38-year-old sister, Rana, moved in with him and disrespects both him and his house all the time. His argument was, if she's forced to move back in with him because she couldn't make it in the world, shouldn't she at least clean up around the house and show him some respect once in a while?

After about 25 minutes of this torture, he asked me how my real estate business was going. At this point my mind was completely numb and I gave up hope, so I told him about my plans to buy property next year. He then told me that I'm better off buying a commercial property first rather than two cheap residentials in order to benefit from the tax breaks that I get. Tax breaks? What's a tax break?

After I got off the phone I went online and looked it up and he was right. If you own commercial real estate (a property with more than 4 units), you're entitled to certain tax breaks under federal law. I didn't understand alot of what I read because I don't know much about taxes. So I plan to download some kind of tax learning program to help me understand the terms.

I'm not sure if it makes a difference. I'm concerned more with cash flow than tax breaks, so it may even out in the end. I do like the fact that this information gives me more options to consider when purchasing my next property. I talked about Roy in an earlier blog, Father Roy. My parents, Roy and Rita, are equally annoying. I sit through their babbling and most of the time it's for naught. I have to remember that they're much older than me, have more life experience than me and, sometimes, still have the ability to teach me a thing or two.