Well-written, comprehensive advice and strategies detailing the whys, the hows, and the potential pitfalls of real estate...
A debut guide offers tips for those actively investing in real estate or considering the move to boost income and build wealth.
In this book, Han and MacFarland detail tax-saving strategies, stressing the need for proactive tax planning before any real estate investments are made and explaining why full and accurate record-keeping and documentation remain vital to business success. The manual covers how related expenses, such as traveling to view potential properties and catering at open house events, can be broadly defined but still legally deducted as long as they are an ordinary and necessary part of doing business. The correct way to establish and use legal entities such as Limited Liability Corporations and S Corporations to protect assets is also discussed. Furthermore, the authors address how investors can avoid the dreaded IRS audit and demonstrate why striving to become as audit-proof as possible is so important: “Unlike the U.S. criminal court system, which deems a person innocent until proven guilty, the IRS has a completely different viewpoint: the taxpayer is guilty until proven innocent.” Another section identifies the ways in which flipped properties are taxed differently than other real estate investments and what effect that has on individuals. The authors write in a friendly, engaging style, explaining complicated real estate tax and legal matters clearly and without condescension. Although some of the tax strategies outlined may sound familiar to investors, other information may be new. For example, the authors explain how an individual’s retirement account can be designated as self-directed rather than based on the stock market and then leveraged to finance property purchases. Their main points are underscored and enlivened by case studies describing the experiences of their clients who’ve made good and bad decisions in their real estate investments and the consequences that resulted. It’s not necessary to be a tax expert to follow the arguments in this guide, and the appended glossary of terms provides additional help.
Well-written, comprehensive advice and strategies detailing the whys, the hows, and the potential pitfalls of real estate investing.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9907117-6-6
Page Count: 210
Publisher: BiggerPockets
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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