Whether you build to sell or buy to hold, real estate is taxed on what you do with a property — and the same building can mean ordinary income, a capital gain, or a tax loss depending on how you hold it. Because those paths are so different, we split the guidance the way the tax code does:
Long-term and short-term rentals — the passive-loss rules, the short-term-rental treatment, material participation, cost segregation, and per-property basis tracking.
Learn more →Spec homes, remodels, and development held for sale — dealer status, ordinary-income treatment, job costing by project, and the entity separation that keeps it clear of your hold portfolio.
Learn more →Commission income arrives on a 1099 — self-employment tax, quarterly estimates, and an S-corp question that turns real once production is steady. In Texas there is a step most advice skips: the entity has to be registered with TREC before your broker can pay it. Register first, elect second. Desk fees, splits, mileage, and marketing spend are all deductible; most agents track none of it until April. Brokerage offices add agent splits, referral fees, and payroll on top.
Learn more →Whichever road you’re on, real estate is the rare business where a property can put cash in your pocket and a loss on your return in the same year. Depreciation drives the result; the passive-loss and dealer rules decide whether you keep it. Every real estate engagement we run tracks the cash number and the tax number separately, per property or per project — because the gap between them is where the strategy lives.
Yes, but the order matters. Texas Occupations Code §1101.355 requires a business entity that receives compensation on a license holder’s behalf to be licensed as a broker — or, since January 2024, registered with TREC under the exemption for an LLC or S-corp owned at least 51 percent by the license holder and used for nothing else. Register the entity first; make the tax election second. A broker who owns a brokerage is usually on the licensed-entity path instead. We handle the election, the payroll, and the books, and tell you plainly where the license rule sits — entity formation itself is confirmed with TREC and your attorney.
Both pages apply, and keeping the two activities in separate entities and ledgers is exactly the point — build-to-sell is dealer activity taxed as ordinary income, while holds are investment activity that can reach capital-gain treatment, and mixing them lets the dealer character contaminate your investment gains. Start on the page matching your larger activity; we’ll structure both correctly in the first conversation.
Untracked basis and suspended losses. Every property accumulates a history — improvements, depreciation, refinances, passive losses that suspended — and it all comes due at sale. Owners who never tracked it per property turn the sale-year return into an archaeology dig, often overpaying because favorable items got lost. We keep a live per-property ledger so sale day is arithmetic, not excavation.
Yes. We’re based in Montgomery County but virtual-first, and real estate is inherently multi-state — we handle the apportionment, multiple state filings, and per-property books for investors holding across state lines, all through the secure portal.
Every tax return prepared and signed by a licensed CPA or IRS Enrolled Agent. Documents run through the secure portal; anything you sign is sent to you electronically.
Face to face by video with Kevin Hemingway, CPA. We size up what you need, whether the firm is a good fit, and what an engagement would cover — and you leave with a clear scope and next steps. This consultation is for engagement evaluation and does not include tax advice, tax planning, or detailed analysis of specific tax situations.
New Client IntroNew or current, the portal is the way in. Last year’s return, your books, a notice — encrypted, and never by email. No account needed to send us something.
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