How to Pay (Much) Less in Taxes as a Real Estate Investor (Rookie Reply)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

Entrepreneurship, Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rental properties can give you cash flow, appreciation, and loan paydown from tenants. But tax benefits are often the unsung hero of real estate investing. Today, we’re sharing some of the best real estate tax strategies so you can keep more of your hard-earned money from Uncle Sam! Welcome back to another Rookie Reply! Should you do a cost segregation study? Many investors use this tax strategy to accelerate depreciation and create massive paper losses, but what’s the catch? Stay tuned as we break down the potential pitfalls and everything you need to know before getting started. What about a 1031 exchange? This strategy allows you to defer capital gains taxes when selling a rental property, but what if you’re flipping houses? Every landlord wants a great tenant in their rental property, but how do you find them? From credit scores and income requirements to employment verification and background checks, we show you how to dial in your tenant screening criteria so that you make the best possible decision! Looking to invest? Need answers? Ask your question here! In This Episode We Cover Real estate tax strategies that will help you keep more money from the IRS How to accelerate rental property depreciation with a cost segregation study Offsetting your active income with the short-term rental tax “loophole” The two ways to qualify for Real Estate Professional Status (REPS) How to select the best tenant for your rental property (fairly and legally) Whether you can do a 1031 exchange when flipping a house And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠h⁠t⁠⁠tps://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-724⁠. Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if one tax strategy you think is reserved for big investors only could wipe out a huge chunk of your W2 tax bill on your very first rental?
0:09.3	Or maybe you're about to hand a stranger the key to a property you just spent every last dollar on and you have no idea what to actually put on your tenant application.
0:18.2	And finally, what happens if you fall in love with the idea of flipping houses,
0:23.1	but you want to roll every dollar of profit into the next deal without losing a chunk to capital gains?
0:29.8	We're answering all three of those questions and helping you keep more of every deal you do.
0:39.6	This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast.
0:41.9	I'm Tony J. Robinson.
0:43.3	And I'm Ashley Care.
0:44.6	And with that, let's get into today's first question.
0:47.2	So today's first question comes from Arendze in the Bigger Pocket forums.
0:50.9	And this question says, I need help making a decision on whether to use a cost
0:56.1	segregation or not. I'm still a new investor, but I bought a six-unit residential property this
1:01.8	year in central Massachusetts and I do plan on holding the property for a long time. I have a
1:08.3	high W-2 plus another side business with six figures. My question is whether
1:12.4	using a cost segregation will help in dropping down my taxes, what are the pros and cons,
1:17.1	and then what are some referral companies that can do this cost segregation study? I think first,
1:23.6	let's talk about what a cost segregation study is. It's basically like an engineering study where
1:30.9	instead of taking standard depreciation on a piece of real estate, and I believe for like a single
1:37.6	family home, it's 27.5 years. I think for commercial property, it's 39.5. Don't quote me on those,
1:42.0	right, somewhere in that ballpark. But instead of taking the depreciation across that standard schedule, you reclassified different components of the
1:50.4	property, the roof, the appliances, you know, flooring, whatever it is, and you accelerate that
1:55.3	depreciation. Some get, you know, bunched into into the first year. Some get spread out over five years,
	...

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