Ulysses Lee was a full-time IRS tax examiner. His brother, Kai, worked as a full-time professor of radiology. Together, they are partners in Lee Brothers Investments, which owns a rental house, a five-unit apartment building and another small apartment building. Each investor also owns several rental properties individually.

On their income tax returns, the brothers claimed passive activity tax loss deductions, mostly from depreciation of their properties, against their substantial ordinary income from their full-time jobs.  more...

DEAR BOB: Can a home builder force us to buy the home? We have reached our boiling points with our builder. The mortgage monthly payments are too high and we decided not to purchase the home --Chandra K.

DEAR CHANDRA: Of course, you can't be "forced" to buy a house you don't want.

Purchase Bob Bruss reports online.  more...

Dear Barry,

As a Realtor, I sell a lot of older homes with basement bedrooms. Sellers often can't understand that these don't comply as legal bedrooms because the high windows restrict fire escape. My question is this: When the house is sold "as is," and the new buyers continue to use the illegal bedroom as such, is there liability for the sellers or Realtors in the event of a fire. If so, what kind of disclosure should be made? --Frank

Dear Frank,  more...

There's one thing that buyers and sellers agree on: home inspections are no fun. Buyers and sellers hope for a good end result, but something invariably comes up.

To complicate matters, inspectors sometimes disagree on what is wrong, what should be done to correct a problem or how much it will cost. Finding the right inspector isn't always easy, but it's often critical to resolving an issue.  more...

Whether you are a real estate "newbie" who wants to learn the basic benefits, or an "old pro" who wants to learn advanced investing techniques, "Real Estate Advantages" by CPA Sharon Lechter and attorney Garrett Sutton offers something for every reader.

The book is organized into two sections. The first is about the tax benefits of owning real estate. The second is about the legal strategies, with an especially strong explanation of the best ways to hold title to investment property and why.  more...