MFREE 096 Full Episode with Eric Oliver: Ever feel like you're overpaying in taxes? That’s because you are

In this episode of the Multifamily Real Estate Experiment Podcast, host Hutch, the Marine Investor, and guest Eric Oliver, Vice President of National Accounts at Cost Segregation Authority, delve into the crucial topic of maximizing tax benefits in real estate via cost segregation. They discuss how affluent and novice investors alike can leverage cost segregation to accelerate depreciation and optimize tax savings. Eric breaks down the concept, explaining how it helps front-load depreciation, its benefits, the impact of legislative changes, and practical scenarios where it has the greatest impact. Emphasizing the importance of working with tax strategists and staying in one’s lane, they also touch on bonus depreciation, legislative updates, tax filing strategies, and the significance of diligent partnership in optimizing investment returns.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

00:42 Guest Introduction: Eric from Cost Segregation Authority

03:51 Understanding Cost Segregation

11:56 Bonus Depreciation Explained

16:08 Practical Applications and Examples

21:32 The Importance of Tax Strategists

24:20 Focus Round: Personal Insights

31:23 Conclusion and Contact Information

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hutch@hsquaredcapital.com

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Transcript

Hutch The Marine Investor: 0:00

Wah gwan all you multifamily enthusiast, Welcome to another episode of the multifamily real estate experiment podcast. Look, today, we're going to be talking about a topic that is important. It's really important to to folks who are very affluent in our society. However, we are in the age of information where we have no excuses as to why we cannot leverage some of these benefits no matter what level you are in your financial journey. So today we're gonna talk about maximizing your tax benefits in real estate with cost segregation. And today we have an extraordinary guest for you but first I'm Hutch, the Marine Investor, your host. And today we're joined by Eric. He is the vice president of the national accounts at cost segregation authority, Eric expertise in cost segregation. It helps owners like ourself and you potentially, if you're not invested in real estate yet, optimize it. Tax savings through specialized depreciation strategy. And he's here to, spend some time with us to share insight on tax incentive, bonus depreciation, and the effect of possible legislative change. Eric, I want to welcome you to this episode of the multifamily real estate experiment podcast. Thanks Hutch I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Yes, sir. before we get into the meat and potato things, brother, do you have a favorite real estate quote or mantra that drives you? That's

Speaker 2: 1:33

a good question. I don't necessarily have a quote. I've had to learn the hard way throughout my real estate journey. I don't know that it's a quote that anyone said, or it's more than just a lesson that I've learned and that is to stay in my lane and know what I'm good at. you can't be an expert in everything. If you're good at sourcing deals or finding deals, but you're not good at marketing them or managing the properties, then make sure you get a good manager, a good, person, to help manage those. I've had to learn the hard way. I tried to do it all myself at first, and it was very difficult. And I've had to learn to build a team around me of, I know what I'm good at, and I just need to stay in lane and keep focused. And then all this stuff I'm not good at. I partner with people who are good at those different things and bring them in. So not necessarily a quote, but just a word to the wise, take it for me. I've learned the hard way. You can't be an expert at everything.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 2:21

Now it's definitely a really cool life lessons there that you share with us, right? Because I think, especially when you're younger folks, the world society, teachers, parents, a lot of folks around us that are very influential. Really encourage you to work on your weaknesses because you're really strong in some areas. However, I think we're realizing that, we are all born different to do different things in this society, this world, And some people are just really good at things and really enjoy doing certain things. And that's what I talk about a who, not the how, So you have a great vision of what you want to accomplish. And if you're lucky enough, to be able to have this abundance mindset, then you bring the people into that things you as you are aspiring to do, and you find a, who to do the, how they get you to that place that you want to go, especially in a business venture, so I appreciate you sharing that with us.

Speaker 2: 3:12

Oh, yeah, no problem.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 3:14

Yes, sir. so look, cost segregation is not something that I knew about before I actually start diving into real estate and starting to acquire larger properties. most investors. And owners, they are focused more on, small asset that typically, we're not needing to think about cost segregation because a straight line depreciation, we're used to that and our tax guy would tell us exactly how that works, right? It's very beneficial as well. However, when we start thinking a little bit bigger and start acquiring bigger properties, We get exposed to different words and different vocabulary. So this one known as cost segregation, can you break it down for our listeners and help us to understand cost segregation at its foundation level?

Speaker 2: 4:01

Sure. That's a great question, Hutch. So cost segregation really is just accelerated depreciation on your real estate assets. So one of the great benefits of owning real estate Is the ability to take what they call a depreciation expense each year against your income So think of it when you buy a building each year that building the structure itself deteriorates over time And the irs knows that and so they allow you to take an expense over time now for commercial properties That time period is 39 years for residential properties. That time period is 27 and a half years So just to make the math easy Hutch. Let's say you buy a$390,000 office condo You would take$390,000 divide it by 39 years And you're going to have essentially a$10,000 write off every year for the next 39 years, which is great That's a you know Everyone was looking for write off That means that if I may have a hundred and ten thousand of income that year instead of paying tax on hundred and ten I get to use this 10, 000 write off and now I'm only paying tax on$100, 000 of income, right? That's called straight line depreciation. That's what a lot of us investors do. the problem with that Hutch is I may not own my property for 39 years. I want my deductions now versus taking one 39th. Equally over the next 39 years. And the way I can do that is through an engineering based study or cost segregation, where we come in and just the name implies we're segregating the cost of your building into different buckets per se. So when you buy an office condo, you don't just buy the land and the walls. You also buy, some flooring, you buy some window coverings. you may buy part of the parking lot. You may buy some cabinets, some countertops. All those things I mentioned the IRS says should be depreciated Over 5, 7 or 15 years, but certainly not 39 years. And so again, just as the name implies, we come in and we take your$390, 000 purchase price and we say, okay, of that 390, 000, 90,000 of that was for short life, five year assets, things like carpet, countertops, cabinets, et cetera. Some of that was for the land improvements. parking lots, curbs, gutters, asphalt, retaining walls, outdoor lighting. And so we take that$390, 000 purchase price, break it up into different buckets, and by doing that, it allows us to depreciate at a much faster rate. The reason we want to do that, Hutch, is because, one is inflation, you know a dollar today is worth way more than a dollar in the future So give me my deductions now, therefore I can take that deduction create tax savings Take that extra cash flow and go buy another property or I can pay down my debt or I can Invest it in bitcoin do whatever you want with that money But at least I have that money now versus letting the irs hold on to it for the next 39 years So that's cost segregation at a high level. We're just Front loading or taking the depreciation at a faster rate.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 6:58

Gotcha. Yeah, so I get it. the government allows to, depreciate this asset. does it mean that the value of my property is going down over the years?

Speaker 2: 7:08

No, your value is probably going up. depending on the market, but in most cases, your value of your property is going up. It's just that as that property is used, there's wear and tear on that property. Yeah. For example, if you had a multifamily property over time, you're going to have to put in new carpet, new flooring, potentially new windows, new roof, new walls, new cabinets, countertops. So you're wearing that property out over time, even though the value of the property is going up, rents are going up, cash flows going up, land values going up. So that property is worth more today, more dollars, but. You get to take that non cash expense because of the wear and tear on that building.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 7:47

Got you. So look, for those folks who have not really used cost segregation rights, yes, the value of the property is not going down, if I take all this depreciation from this property, what happened when I sell the property to somebody else? Do they got to make everything new to get some depreciation again?

Speaker 2: 8:06

No, so your depreciation clock starts over every time a property changes hands So let's say you buy a property for a million dollars and you sell it to me five years later for two million When I start depreciating that two million dollar property my starting basis is that two million dollars Yours is the one million dollars It's not for the life of the property. It's for your ownership individually as a taxpayer. So when you buy a property, you do your cost seg, you determine all the stuff that's in there. So for example, in that example, I used where you bought the property for a million, right? Let's say we would value your cabinets at let's say 50, 000. When I bought that same property for 2 million, I just paid double for those cabinets. So now my cabinets cost me a hundred thousand. And so that's where we start depreciating. Based off of the purchase price now when you do sell the asset You do have to pay some of this depreciation back in the form of what they call depreciation recapture let me i'll back into this example because I think it makes more sense when you buy a property Let's use the example. We had you buy a property for a million you sell it five years later for two million When you go to settle up with the irs You're telling them that everything is doubled in value in your building your land is worth more your wall worth more And you're also telling them that your dirty stained nasty carpet is worth double what you paid for it Well carpet is a five year asset. So in that example where I bought the building held it for five years The book value of my carpet is zero, correct? I shouldn't be selling my carpet for more than I've paid for it. The problem is, Hutch is when you don't do a cost seg study, you don't have everything broken out. You just have one lump sum about all this, about this office and all this stuff for a million. I'm selling this office and all this stuff for 2 million and you end up paying tax on that million dollars of gain when what should happen is you should break it up and say, my land, I bought it for a million sold it for 2 million. My land and walls went up in value, but my cabinets, my countertops, my flooring, that all went down in value. And so you end up paying less tax upon sell. There's a rate arbitrage where you're taking your deduction at an ordinary income rate, let's call it 35%. When you sell the property. In five years, you're paying some of that back, but you're paying it back at a 20% capital gain rate and saving the spread. That's the most simplest way to describe it. So take your deduction at a high rate, pay back some of it at a lower rate at a future date, and then you're saving the spread. And that's the whole idea behind cost seg. Not to mention you've had that money to reinvest for the last five years.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 10:40

So it sounds like you're saying that, at the different level, five, seven or 15 years. If we want to keep the property for five years, and we did our accelerated depreciation on the cost segregation study, then those things that if we depreciated 100 percent of those things with a five year lifetime, say, for example, for property, and we only accepted the depreciation value for those Things that have five year limits. We could potentially not have a, even though we've got to file the taxes, potentially not have to pay any taxes on that loss. You're saying?

Speaker 2: 11:16

Any tax on the five year assets. Over to capital gains. But again, if you're taking your deduction at 35, paying back at a 15 or 20 percent capital gains rate, There's quite a big spread there. And that's what you call permanent tax savings for yourself.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 11:29

Gotcha. So why is a lot of wealthy people so excited about these tax strategy, even though they're not too excited about it, it's phasing out.

Speaker 2: 11:38

So the reason is it just creates cash flow in those early years of ownership and so it's a great way for you to build wealth over time instead of giving that money to the government letting them sit on it For 39 years you get to take that tax savings and reinvest it Pay down your debt, go buy new properties. There is something called Bonus Depreciation Hutch, which we haven't touched on, but it puts cost segregation on steroids. Okay. And so there was, it was part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act where bonus depreciation was really ramped up at the end of 2017. Donald Trump was our president. Donald Trump owns real estate and Donald Trump was very favorable to real estate investors when he revised the tax code. And so with bonus depreciation, you can get it a huge deduction in the first year. any assets bought between 9 27 of 17 and 1231 of 2022, they were all eligible for a hundred percent bonus. And what that means is when we do our cost seg study And we identify let's say again, let's use easy math here Let's use a million dollar property you buy a million dollar property. We usually will segregate around 30 percent of that So we'll find$300,000 worth of stuff that falls in those short life assets on average with 100 percent bonus, you got to take 100 percent of that 300, 000 all in year one. You didn't have to spread it out over 5, 7, or 15 years. You just got to take an immediate deduction of the whole amount in year one, which was huge. that's a$300,000 write off in that example.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 13:14

Yeah, I think what is cool about that example is that$300,000 of the million dollars could be all of your equity that you have in that property, right? So you pretty much, you invest in$300,000 and you show a passive loss of$300,000 for that first initial year, right? Am I getting that right?

Speaker 2: 13:32

Yep,

Hutch The Marine Investor: 13:32

you got

Speaker 2: 13:33

I just did the math here on my calculator. If you didn't do cost sake, you would get a$25,000 write off by doing cost segregating. You're getting a$300,000 write off, so you can see the power of it. Now, bonus depreciation, or a hundred percent bonus depreciation did phase out. You had to have bought a property again between 9 27 of 17 and 1231 of 22.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 13:55

If

Speaker 2: 13:55

you bought a property in 2023, you were eligible for 80% bonus. 2024 at 60% next year, it drops to 40. It goes down 20% each year until 2027 when it's down to zero. The good news is hopefully, fingers crossed Congress actually put to forth a bill earlier this year in 2024 that said, Hey, let's extend this 100 percent bonus. It went to the house voted on it almost unanimously, bipartisan support. It passed the house, got to the Senate and there was a few senators that said, wait a minute, we're in the midst of a presidential election this year. We don't want to pass anything this year because then it's going to look good for biden on his watch So we're not going to pass anything. So they stalled it. They killed the bill, but it has bipartisan support So here's the thing at the end of this year the presidential election happens here just in a few days When that happens, regardless of who wins the presidential seat, I think Congress will get back together after the presidential election. They're going to agree to a comprehensive tax bill. I do think it'll include the extension of 100 percent bonus. They'll vote on it early next year. my guess, is that we are going to have 100 percent bonus for 2024's tax returns. But right now it's 60%. We'll have to wait and see.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 15:13

Do you think they might go retro back to 2023?

Speaker 2: 15:16

Don't think they'll go back to 23. And here's the reason why, because everyone had to have their taxes filed by October 15th. So everyone's already filed 2023. 2024's taxes aren't due until next year, next October, if you extend. I think it'd be very hard for them to retro it for 2023. There would have to be a lot of amendments or they'd have to figure out a way. To honor that a hundred percent bonus. So my guess is if you bought something in 23, you'll be stuck at the 80%, which Hutch is very good. We were doing cost seg when there was no bonus and you just taking 39 year assets and moving them to five year assets and splitting them up over five years. So now we get that extra bump. So 80 percent was very good. I don't foresee them going back to 23. My guess is they would go back to 24, but got you. Surprised me before, so we'll have to wait and see.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 16:04

Yeah, they surprise us all the time. And so this cost segregation is definitely a game changer. We took the last property that we closed on was almost 700 units over in Texas. One investor invested a hundred grand, the cost segregation was right around$46,000 savings for the first year, On the passive loss, it's a game changer for those people who really get in this game. if you have a hundred thousand dollars sitting around that you've been saving for a very long time, right? Chances are, it might not be, working as hard for you Has you worked for it? And what we've seen is that a lot of folks are realizing that they can use that money to work at a significantly higher pace than it is in its current place, right? and that's where tax savings, like bonus depreciation, acceleration depreciation comes in, where you can invest that money. And if you have a diversified portfolio that brings you some passive income, then you can use that passive loss. And if you're a savvy investor, you understand the difference between passive loss and just losing money, right? Passive loss doesn't necessarily mean that's your, Losing money. You mean that the government themselves or investors like yourself create tax strategy for you and them to benefit, to ensure that your money can continue to work better, Can you tell us Eric, how can an investor use their passive losses?

Speaker 2: 17:22

Yeah, so passive losses in this instance, it's not because the property is losing money. It's actually just a paper loss. So the property is making money, but the deduction we're able to create by utilizing cost segregation and bonus depreciation is greater Than the money that the property is making. So let's say the property is making 100, 000, but you do a cost seg study and we create a 200, 000 deduction. On paper, the property looks like it's lost$100,000, but that's only because of that depreciation. It's a non cash expense. So it's a paper loss. Now that deduction, as you mentioned, as an investor, I can use that to offset other passive income. So if I am a w 2 employee and I've got two single family rentals and those single family rentals. They make fifty thousand dollars each a year That hundred thousand dollars of passive income. I don't want to pay tax on it So I could invest in one of your projects create a$100,000 loss Use that$100,000 loss to offset my$100,000 of income from my rental properties And in doing so if i'm in a 37% tax bracket, I just saved$37,000 in taxes that I would have normally had to pay so The active versus passive. I always think of it as i'm a w 2 employee What I do for a daily job is this cost seg stuff. My rental activity is passive. I don't do that actively. and so there's active deductions that offset active income and there's passive deductions that offset passive income. There's some ways around it that we probably won't get into today about being a real estate professional. When your Spouse spends more than 750 hours a year doing real estate and more than 51 percent of their working time, they may qualify as a real estate professional. And then that's like the golden ticket. There's all kinds of different rules apply to them. But for the most part, these deductions for most of your investors are going to be considered passive and they can be used to offset any other type of passive income.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 19:17

Yeah, folks, if you listen to this episode, and it's the first time you're hearing about cost segregation, it's really worth spending 30 minutes to one hour of your time learning a little more because this is a catalyst towards your dollar amount, whether you're saving for retirement, Or you're looking to keep more of your passive income in today's earnings, definitely spend some more time and dive into, or, at the end of this podcast episode, we're going to learn how we can reach out to Eric. However, we are doing the work for you and Eric, I want to ask you this question. Are there specific types of properties or scenarios where cost segregation has its greatest impact?

Speaker 2: 19:57

There are. So multifamily is great. multifamily good because if you think about apartment buildings, for example There's a lot of stuff inside those buildings. There's appliances in each unit. There's flooring in each unit There's window coverings in each unit. There's ceiling fans garbage disposals So they get a higher yield in terms of depreciation versus if I go spend the same amount on an empty warehouse I might only segregate 20% of that because there's nothing in there. There's no stuff in there so Warehouses might get 20% multifamily might get 30% to 35%. There are a couple really unique categories One is car wash car washes when you invest in car washes essentially you may be able to The whole car wash may be treated as a 15 year asset because you're not really buying a building When you buy a car wash you're buying equipment typically and you're buying land improvements curbs gutters concrete, right? So oftentimes those Tend to yield really high results, and then gas stations and mobile home parks are the other two that are unique.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 21:02

Yeah, mobile home park is definitely a game changer, right? Because if you just own the park and the improvement, the horizontal, the plumbing, right? The sewer line, electric line, and just the pads. That's, that these mobile home goes on. it, the improvement is so little, however, you bind that business for, millions and millions of dollars. And the land is not depreciable. You know what I mean? So a lot of those improvements gives you a significantly higher, cost segregation, on your bonus appreciation on your money, which I find to be super fascinating.

Speaker 2: 21:32

Thing is, and I'll just kind of end with this touches, you always want to make sure you obviously talk to your tax preparer, tax strategist. Now I want to make a clear distinction. There is a huge distinction between a tax preparer and a tax strategist.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 21:45

As

Speaker 2: 21:46

you start along your investment journey, it may be okay just to work with the tax preparer. You hand them a few documents, they run it through their software. And they tell you how much tax you owe. That is a tax preparer. As you start to build a complex real estate portfolio, it's very important to make sure you're working with a tax strategist, not just a tax preparer. So you don't want to just meet with your tax person once a year, because chances are, it's too late for you to impose any type of strategy. As you start to build your real estate portfolio Make sure you're working with somebody who really understands real estate tax and how that works to your favor because if you're going nothing against h& r block But if you're going to walmart picking your stuff into h& r block, they're not going to be able to talk tax strategy They're just Processing your return. They're just plugging your information into their software. It spits out a number that you owe the irs And that's the end of it where a tax strategist will usually meet with you three or four times a year Talk to you talk with you about hey, what type of income do you have coming in? What deductions do you expect to have this year? How do we create more deductions so that when you do have to pay taxes, you're paying very little We don't do tax returns. This is not a plug for myself We just do this cost segregation But i've seen so many investors leave money on the table By working with somebody who doesn't understand real estate and as you start to build your portfolio It's very important. You're working with somebody who understands real estate

Hutch The Marine Investor: 23:09

Yeah, 100%. it's one of those things where you definitely need to get a who, to help you that knows how to help you to keep more off your capital, because look, we say this very frequently in this podcast that, If you are creating jobs and housing, the government have created this unique things that a lot of us we call taxes, which we think is our patriotic duty to pay these taxes. Yes, there are taxes that you are obligated to pay. However, if you are providing certain service to the population, then there are benefits in the tax. tax laws, for you, for doing certain things, spend a couple thousand dollars a year, to save yourself millions of dollars over your lifetime, because medical bills and taxes is probably two of the most expensive things that we will pay in our lifetime. if you got good insurance, then that's good for you. If you have a good tax strategies, right? We want to stand away bonus depreciation or cost segregation strategy can build into your investments that work for you. Then you get to keep more of your income. All right. So we're going to go to the focus round, Eric. What do you do for fun?

Speaker 2: 24:24

What do I do for fun? I actually play a lot of pickleball, believe it or not. So I've gotten into that. I shouldn't say it's an old man's sport because it's taking off like crazy, I like it because I'm getting older and you can't tell by me sitting here, but I'm actually six foot six. it's easy just to stand in the middle of the court, not have to move too much.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 24:40

what is one opportunity that was a game changer for you?

Speaker 2: 24:43

I took some money out of an old 401k that I had and I invested it in an opportunity zone fund, where they're building micro apartments. That's been a game changer for me financially, because I think that money is going to grow at a much faster rate. And there's going to be some significant tax advantages to that money versus just leaving it in a 401k at my old employer. definitely something to look at if you've got money, just sitting in a 401k, make sure you find yourself A good, syndication or a good general partner, somebody who can get you a good return. Cause there's a lot of good returns out there in real estate that are higher than what you're getting on your 401k. You just got to make sure you're partnering with the right people.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 25:18

Yeah, 100%. and one of the caveat is, a lot of folks, want to roll their money from a 401k over into a self directed IRA and that's a good thing. However, there's certain conflict with a tax law, right? Where you might not be able to benefit from some tax benefits, if you are investing with your self directed IRA. So ensure that you're speaking to your CPA, your tax preparer, your tax strategist, In understanding, some of those, and also some of the consequences of investing with your self directed IRA. Into say a syndication because you got things like, the unrelated business expense. I think it's the, you bid tax rates, make sure you have, make sure you get a deep understanding of where your money's coming from, to invest in different assets, to understand your obligation, towards, Paying taxes or your potential, not benefiting from some of the tax benefits. So talk to you people talk to the who that know the how, so you can go do the thing that you want to do. Yeah, I appreciate that. What is your most important communication tip?

Speaker 2: 26:23

My most important communication tip is to humble yourself and know, going back to knowing what you're good at. I think you've got to be able to, anytime you're working with a team, you've got to be humble enough to say, Hey, I'm not good at this. This is where I made my mistakes. And so just communicating early and often, is so important. And to be able to identify when you have made a mistake, I really struggle working with people who. Can't admit their own faults because it doesn't help any of us in the big picture. Like we're all working towards the same goal, but if we're not honest with ourselves on what our strengths are, where our mistakes were made, what have you, then none of us can help fix the problem. And so I just think that being honest with yourself, being honest, being humble enough to know when you make a mistake, owning up to your mistake, get it out there early. Don't hold onto it because it's just going to make things worse. that's the best advice I can give.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 27:13

Yes, self accountability might be one of the most challenging things we do, right? I tell my Marines this, I tell my children this, and I tell myself this, that our superpower is self control, right? And it's important that we're really thinking about our thoughts, right? Thinking about our thoughts and realize the way we're showing up. Maybe I am the problem in this situation, right? Maybe I should listen some more so I can learn a little bit more about myself or a particular situation, so I can potentially add more value, By, communicating better, So what is one thing you wish you understood earlier?

Speaker 2: 27:50

One thing that I wish I understood earlier, and I hate to go back to because I've gone back to it three times, but I learned the hard way about staying in your lane. I'll give you a quick story. I was 19 years old. I bought a new car. I bought a new stereo for my car and they wanted$180 to install the stereo I said to and I spent quite a bit of money on the stereo and I got a big subwoofer in the back I was all excited. They wanted$180 to install it. I'm like i'm not paying that so I went home And I struggled for three days to install that stereo I had to get a wire from the battery to the trunk of the car And I was thinking about drilling holes underneath the car drilling holes through this I'm like, how in the hell do I get this cable from my battery to the trunk? So after three days of just headache, YouTube videos, I couldn't figure it out. I finally had to put my tail between my legs and I called the place where I bought the stereo and I'm like, Hey, how do I get this thing from the battery to the back of the car? And they're like, Oh, you just poke a hole through the little rubber bushing where you pop your hood, there's a cable from where you pop your hood. So anyways, long story short, I spent three days of just hell trying to install this stereo. Once I finally got it installed, after about two months, it started shorting out and I had all kinds of problems with it.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 29:05

wow.

Speaker 2: 29:06

I'm not a radio installer. I did not stay in my lane. I tried to save the$180. I tried to take the cheap route. I would have been way better off spending$180 getting it. They would have done it in an hour It would have been done great. I wouldn't have any problems with it instead I wasted an hour or days of my time plus I ended up having to pay them to fix it Anyway, so long story short thing with cpas don't you already mentioned this you can go get your taxes done for$100$200 But you get what you pay for and if you're not paying I would much rather pay a thousand dollars to a cpa who knows What they're doing because they're going to save me$10,000 in taxes and so you always get what you pay for whether it's services that you buy Or products that you buy I feel like you definitely get what you pay for so I had to unfortunately learn that the hard way through the course of my life, but Yeah, i'll end with that

Hutch The Marine Investor: 29:57

no, I got you, man. I've done the same thing too, man. I wanted to do a family project and install some, vinyl planks in one of my single family homes. And in a year we end up replacing the entire floor. So I went to Home Depot or Lowe's and got it professionally installed. He started shifting look, I fixed aircraft, like really good. I don't replace floors. You don't do floors, that's right. Yeah. so last question, before we get into contact information, right? Eric, to what do you attribute your success?

Speaker 2: 30:26

I grew up playing sports, throughout junior high and high school. And I think that the biggest thing that separates those who succeed and those who don't is just hard work. There's no getting around the hard work. I'm sure you know this very well, but You have to put in the work. it takes thousands of hours to master any craft and there's no cheating your way around it. It's if you want to get strong and big, you can't cheat yourself out of the pushups. You've got to do, You just have to do the pushups. And so at some have to buckle down and, hard work pays off. I am a firm believer in karma. You treat people the way you want to be treated. And the truth always comes to the top. if you're not treating people the right way, eventually you might not get caught today or tomorrow, but eventually the truth will come to the top. It always seems to do that. just good karma, treat people the way you want to be treated and hard work will get you where you need to be.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 31:17

Man, thank you so much. We'll get an invest in lessons and life lessons. I appreciate you, Eric. so if a listeners want to get in touch with you, how do they do that?

Speaker 2: 31:27

Yeah. So the best way is just through our website. It's www.costsegauthority.com. my contact information is on there. My email, my phone please listeners use this as a resource like I mentioned earlier, we don't do tax returns at our firm we just do these cost segregation studies and energy credits so we'll usually partner with your tax preparer But if you've got questions on real estate tax or depreciation, please don't hesitate to reach out We don't bill by the hour or anything like that. We're here to help we want to get you the information you need and do it in a way that works for you So don't hesitate to reach out

Hutch The Marine Investor: 32:03

Thank you so much, Eric. listeners, I want to thank you. Thank you for spending some time with us today to learn some more about this specific tool that can be a catalyst towards your financial journey in keeping more of your passive income, so I trust that you took a lot of life from this. A lot more research that you would need to do to get a deeper understanding about how you can benefit from cost segregation, reach out to Eric, or you can at his contact, or you can reach out to myself or Dr. Jones, and we can talk more about how our investors are benefiting from cost segregation through the bonus depreciation strategy. So until next time, Eric, thank you so much again for joining us, brother. Until next time I'm Hutch the Marine Investor out.