What are the tax advantages (if any) in renting a house (as the landlord)?

Assumptions:
1. not a real estate professional
2. can not use the ,000 special allowance for losses

Doesn’t the passive income offset passive expenses to a net zero advantage?

What if passive expenses exceed passive income? Wouldn’t that be a disadvantage?

How do you keep your kids safe on the net these days? How can you keep a computer safe for research projects and still have it safe? Can you block it from yahoo answers, my space and email while you are gone? Are there educational DVDs that are effective to train kids about internet dangers? The internet is wonderful and some kids are okay with it, but how do we keep it safe for kids and teens? I know as a kid I was a latch key kid and if I had to wait until my parents got home to do my homework it would have never gotten done.

What’s the best way to purchase a rental property with little cash? I currently own my primary residence, but don’t have a lot of extra cash lying around to purchase a rental property. Can I use the equity in my home for the down payment?

An interesting read to understand the origins of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae:
http://hnn.us/articles/1849.html

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the only two Fortune 500 companies that are not required to inform the public about any financial difficulties that they may be having. In the event that there was some sort of financial collapse within either of these companies, U.S. taxpayers could be held responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars in outstanding debts. A recent investigation by the Justice Department and the SEC into the accounting practices at Freddie Mac revealed accounting errors in the amount of 4.5 to 4.7 billion dollars and resulted in the termination of three of the company’s top executives. Ongoing investigations by Congress, particular the House Finance Services subcommittee that oversees the activity of GSEs, will determine the future role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the secondary mortgage market that they dominate.

It apparently started in 1977 with President Carter passing the Community Redevelopment Act. Then it continued in the 1990’s under President Clinton.

According to the New York Times, in September 1999, "Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stockholders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits."

Bush tried to do something major in September 1993 to control the problems with Fannie and Freddie, but Republican Congress stopped it. Thereafter, during his administration, he did not do much after to get this mess under control. He did not as a leader, "pull the bulls by the horns." To add insult to injury, politicans like Barney Frank claimed there were no problems with Fannie and Freddie.

Shouldn’t Bush played a bigger role to stop this mess? What do you think? I am trying to better understand this problem.

I live in an area where there are lots of tornadoes (especially lately). I live in a mobile home, and I know that I’m supposed to get out of it when there’s a tornado. But what about my pets? I have five cats that live indoors, and right this second I can see myself risking my life to make them safe…but I’m just not sure if I’d have time to get them all into pet carriers and get them to the car, then drag the carriers into my designated safe place. I’m just one person, after all.

Is there a better way to keep them safe during a tornado warning?

I have 100 FRE shares.
Is it better to sell them off for less instead of waiting until a bailout happens?

Here is my situation. Me and the wife just applied for a our first mortgage. She has a credit score of 673 and I have the bad one of 584. I went ahead an pulled my reports from the 3 credit bureau’s. I have 5 accounts that are in collection or are delinquent. These are minor dollar amounts. Only like 44, 179, 144, 202 and 180. What is the best way to fix this without going to a specialist and paying the extra money. I have all the contact information of the creditors so I can contact them directly now. Should I call them (not mention I’m buying a house) and say I want to work with them to get this off my report? Then infer I don’t have much money but what is the least they will take to call it even? I have been much better with my money for the past 4 years with nothing negative. And once this is done, how long till I see it impact my credit score? Thanks for any help.

I have a rental property (single family house) in Redford, Wayne County, MI. and I am interested in making it available to section 8 voucher renters. What is the proceedure and where do I get forms and applications?
I have a rental property (single family house) in Redford, Wayne County, MI. and I am interested in making it available to section 8 voucher renters. What is the proceedure and where do I get forms and applications?

hud.gov is not too easy to find my way around. specifics pls?

I have a seroius cockroach phobia and I live alone with my four Yorkie terriers and a small bird. I’ve done research on varoius types of home insecticides and have found none that are safe for use around children and animals. Please help!

And do you think this will be a short term or long term investment? How short and how long? Thank you.

I’m a first time home buyer. I’m dealing with a mortgage broker who came back with something odd today. She says that because the home we’re looking at is in a "declining market" area and we’re not putting down 20% for a down payment, Fannie Mae is requiring that we put down 5%, but this 5% can’t come from us. It has to be a gift from someone else. Is this true?

Just wondering with the bailout looming is freddie mac and fannie may a good buy?

I pay about 0 for shampoo cleaning every year when tennant moves out. If I replace just the living room carpet (where dirt/stains usually are anyways) with hardwood floor (estimating it would cost 0) is that a worthwhile investment? Maybe it would be nicer too and make the unit more desirable. Currently has offwhite thick carpet.
I would go cheap and get linolium
oops I meant laminate!

My credit is terrible. Like Steven King Novel scary. I just turned 29 and with 30 looming over me, I want to get these mistakes fixed! Trouble is, I don’t even know where to start. I am trying to make sense of my credit report and who I owe money to, but even that is confusing me.

I am dreaming of being able to buy a house by the time I am 30- one year away. Can all of my mistakes be fixed in time, and where do I start???
One thing I am having trouble understdning is my actual credit repot- I am not sure who I even owe money to!! If credit counselors are not good (and I hear mixed things about that) who can I go to for help…..besides all of you fine folks, of course!

It seems like everyone on my dads side of the family is against my family. Its a lot of things that they do. One example:
we bought a new house about three years ago. Its a big house in a really nice neighborhood. But it was a fixer upper and we were told that we’d bought a peice of shit and laughed at us. And after we had redone it inside and out they talked about us and said we live "above our means" when its not true my parents went to college and make good money.
However the thing that got me the very most was recently. First I have to backup and tell you that my sister got part of her index finger severed in a door at school when she was in first grade. Shes now oldr but one of my uncle randomly decided to taunt her about it. She is very sensitive about it and I feel as if that is the lowest thing somone can do. I am close to just breaking off all ties with all of them. However at the same time they are family. Wut should i do?

Or does it include loans from any source? The property manager of the house we are renting told me today that it only covers loans from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. We are 6 months into a 2 year lease and just found out our landlord is heading for foreclosure.

America has suffered badly because of the Fannie Mae and Wall Street executives. And, those executives have given a lot of money to Dems.

Is it a sure bet that none of those donors will end up in jail in spite of the damage done to America?
Are the Dems saying there is no crime at almost making America’s economy collapse?

We just adopted a dog 2 weeks ago from the pound. We very rarely leave him but when we do we come home to a disaster. We bought a metal crate and tried that but he destroyed everything in it including the plastic tray that comes with it for the bottom. The next time we put him in it we put some chew toys and when we got home there was blood and he broke 1 tooth and chipped another. Now when we leave we have a wire rope covered in plastic, hooked to a stake in the ground. In general he is only left for about 10 minutes during the week. Long enough for me to take my daughter to school. The tether is something that we just started but we can not use it for long periods of time because it is very cold and snowy outside. Any ideas for the future? We love our dog very much and have become very attached and hate to see him hurt. But also hate to see out things destroyed. Can any one help?

I am a n00b investor but I can’t help but think that these guys are going to be doing a lot better in the coming months. Some analyst woman said that they will no longer require government aid and are paying off debt, etc, also the fact that they are dirt cheap right now makes them appealing to me.

i’ve been with my BF for 6yrs now everyone always asks us when r we getting married i usually laugh it off then change the subject. truth is i’m so paranoid about my credit. when i was younger i totally destroid it. i spent years trying to fix it. now its up to the 700 and i worked hard for that. but my boyfriend has bad credit…very bad. He has school loans he hasnt paid off, credit cards, phone, pg&e and hospital bills, all totalling over 10,000. now i know if we get married his credit becomes mine and my score will go back down. i wanna buy a house before i turn 30…im 27 now it will take years for him to fix his credit and mine..if we get married. now what i’m thinking is we have a wedding, reception and honeymoon and all that, we just wont be legally married. my friends and family all say no, but truthfully i’m so worried about my credit. advise please….

I have recently purchased a home. I have been informed that, although not a huge problem, black widows are a problem in the area. I would not mind so much but I have children and I want to keep them safe. I also don’t want to cause the environment any harm. Can anyone suggest non-toxic or environmentally friendly ways to protect my home from black widows…. or at least any way to repel them?