RG 263 – How Property Owners Can Save Thousands of Dollars in Taxes w/ Yonah Weiss

Want to know how you can keep more of the money you make? Yonah Weiss is here with us this week to teach us the benefits of cost segregation—and how you can start applying it to your real estate business.

Yonah Weiss is a real estate investor, spiritual teacher, host of the Weiss Advice podcast, business director of Madison SPECS, and cost segregation expert. After being a spirituality teacher for fifteen years, Yonah decided to do something more and started investing in real estate. This shift led him to discover the knowledge gap in cost segregation among the real estate investors that he encountered. And now, Yonah dedicates a lot of his time to teach other business owners how to save millions of dollars in income tax through cost segregation.

If you invest in real estate, you either know about cost segregation or you don’t. If you’re part of the former group, you may be missing out on tens of thousands of dollars in income tax savings. Luckily, Yonah is here to shed light on the basics of cost segregation as well as its benefits, primarily: maximized annual depreciation, lower capital costs, better cash flow, and reduced upfront income tax, among many others.

Whether you invest in multifamily or commercial properties, cost segregation can put you at a great advantage and let you keep more of your income. Don’t miss out on this extremely informative episode—this could be the knowledge you need to make even more money!

Key Takeaways

• Everything that you do has a purpose, no matter how mundane it may seem.
• Focus on the things that bring you the most joy to ultimately live a happy life.
• Breaking a building into categories can help you benefit quicker from tax deductions.
• Things in a building that are not structural can be written off as tax deductions.

Be Bold, Be Brave and Go Give Life a Crack!

Yonah Weiss (00:00):

You know, in all honesty, the proper way to depreciate your property is to say, well, like you said, the fridge, the carpeting, the cabinets, all this stuff in the building that is not structural depreciates on a five-year schedule. And I can take the value of those as a tax write off much faster. So if I’m allowed to do that, why wouldn’t I? And so you, you made a great point in saying at a certain point, you know, small fix and flips small residential and, you know, single families. It probably doesn’t make sense because the cost of getting it done is probably going to be, you know, equal or somewhere to how much tax deductions. I mean, you ain’t going to get, but the bigger the property is the more tax deductions you’ll get. So it obviously makes more sense because the fee, the price together study done is not contingent on the tax agent, which is really important point. Um, so really the more you scale up, the more deductions you’ll have. So it’s probably the biggest tax strategy out there for people in the real estate business to actually make money and make that money tax free.

Reed Goossens (01:08):

Welcome to investing in the U S a podcast for real estate investors, business owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs looking to break into the U S market join Reed, as he interviews go getters risk takers and the best in the business about their journey towards financial freedom and the sheer joy of creating something, nothing

Reed Goossens (01:28):

G’day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another cracking edition of investing in the U S podcast from Los Angeles. I’m your host Ray. Goossens good as always every with us on the show. Now, I’m glad that you’ve all tuned into learn from my incredible guests and each and every one of them are the cream of the crop here in the United States. When it comes to real estate, investing, business, investing and entrepreneurship, each show, I try and tease out their incredible stories of how they have successfully created the businesses here in the U S how they’ve created financial freedom, massive amounts of cashflow, and ultimately create extraordinary lives for themselves and their families life by design. As I like to say, hopefully these guests will inspire all of my cracking listeners, which are you guys to get off the couch and go and take massive amounts of action.

Reed Goossens (02:15):

If these guys can do it. So can you now, as you know, I’m all about sharing the knowledge with my loyal listeners, which is you guys, and there’s absolutely no BS on this show, just straight into the nuts and bolts. Now, if you do like to show the easiest way to give back is to give us a review on iTunes, and you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter by searching at Reed Goossens. You can find the show, every podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google play, but you can also find these episodes up on my YouTube channel. So head over to Reed goossens.com, click on the video link, and it’ll take you to the video recordings of these podcasts. You can see my ugly mug or the beautiful faces of my guests each and every week. All right, enough of me let’s get cracking and into today’s show I have the

Reed Goossens (03:01):

Pleasure of speaking with Yona Weiss, uh, Yoda is the powerhouse of property owner tax savings. He’s a business director at Madison specs and national cost segregation leader that has assisted clients in saving tens of millions of dollars in tax through cost segregation. He has a background in teaching and he’s a passion for real estate and helping others. He’s a real estate investor and the host of the top rated podcast called wise advice. I’m really pumped and excited to have him on the show today to share his incredible knowledge with us, but not the enemy. Let’s get him out here, get a, and our welcome to the show. Hey, don’t tell domain good.

Yonah Weiss (03:35):

I read it’s a pleasure to be joining you today. How are you doing

Reed Goossens (03:39):

Good? My friend, and for those people who can’t see Yona has an awesome background of my hometown Brisbane, and the only reason I could I could identify the background was actually through the gateway bridge was actually the low at the bottom half of the screen on the water. That’s the bridge, but the gateway, you know, the, the, the, the, the highway just there, that’s on actually on stilts, but, um, mate, uh, enough out of me, uh, how you doing today?

Yonah Weiss (04:04):

I’m doing wonderfully. Thank God. Uh, very blessed to be living the life in Brisbane. Now, actually I’m located right now in Jerusalem and I’ve loving it, you know, just enjoying everything.

Reed Goossens (04:15):

I want to dive all into your, your, your background and story. And the beauty of this show is that what was, what we do is what I try and tease out exactly how you’ve created something from nothing. So my first question for you, my friend is rewind the clock and tell me how you made your first ever dollar as a kid.

Yonah Weiss (04:31):

You know, I first ever dollar I made as a kid was probably, um, doing little lawnmowing right. And it was just kind of family chores, but something I really didn’t like doing and, uh, mowing the lawn actually made a, made a dollar or two, I think when I was about seven or eight years old. So that was nice.

Reed Goossens (04:51):

It, it, it seems to be the classic, you know, boy upbringing in America or Australia or wherever it is, like get on the tools and go and cut some grass for the neighbors. You

Yonah Weiss (05:00):

Know, it’s the, it’s the ultimate, uh, of outsourcing, right? Parents are like here’s activity. I don’t want to do it. Let’s hand it off to someone.

Reed Goossens (05:09):

Exactly. He’s a lawn mower, push it around for the next two hours, work yourself out and then you’ll knock out and go to sleep. So it’s, it’s a, it’s a win-win for all parents across the, across the globe. Um, but my walk us through your story and your journey, how you’ve got into where you are today. And I know we’re talking a little bit offline about how you’ve relocated to Jerusalem, cause originally you grew up in Los Angeles, right?

Yonah Weiss (05:29):

Yeah, that’s right. I grew up in LA, went to college in San Diego. Um, had a, a love for Israel being an Orthodox Jew and had never been, and actually took a trip when I was 20 years old and, uh, basically never left. I mean, I, I went back, you know, multiple times and, uh, actually went to finish a year of college in San Diego, but ultimately I found, uh, my passion, which was really, you know, studying and teaching and spent the better half of about 15 years in Jerusalem, you know, teaching and, and just living a very deeply spiritual life, um, really removed from anything, a business or any of the sorts. So it was only until about five, six years ago that I got involved in real estate. It was kind of on a whim, just looking for some additional income, some additional sources of, uh, you know, revenue bill, you know, have a big family at this point, thank God, and was just looking for, for something more.

Yonah Weiss (06:27):

So that’s when I reached out to some friends, found out, you know, they were doing real estate, various different roles, brokers, commercial mortgages fix, and flips. I had a lot of friends in the states and in Israel that were doing, you know, involved in real estate in multiple capacities. And I just was like, okay, this sounds like a great industry. People were making a lot of money doing this, doesn’t require any additional formal education, uh, which I wasn’t interested in doing. So I was like, okay, let’s, let’s just learn. I kind of got my feet wet in multiple different areas and you know, long story short, uh, um, you know, here we are later being involved in, uh, in the real estate industry has just been an incredible blessing.

Reed Goossens (07:06):

That’s awesome. And talk to me a little bit about the evolution from spirituality teacher into real estate investing, because sometimes that can be a little bit of a loggerheads with one another, you know, the sort of the, the, the, the, the little devil on your shoulder, you know, you want to go make money, you gotta keep a roof over your head, but you also have a passion for helping others in spreading the word of, of Judaism, uh, in and around, you know, in, in Jerusalem where you’re based today.

Yonah Weiss (07:33):

Absolutely. It’s, it is a balance and it is, it is a delicate balance, but I think once a person comes to, and I’m a very spiritual person, very involved with, you know, and live a godly life. But I think there is nothing that we do in life that cannot involve spirituality. So even the most money, seemingly mundane activities, if they’re done with the right intention and they’re done with the right mindset, and this is what people talk about, all, you know, self-help and, and growth oriented people are talking about the right mindset all the time. Well, if you just realize that, you know, you’re, you’re in this world for a purpose and everything that you do, every interaction that you have is a there there’s purpose to that. And so it’s not really a conflict when you approach business with that mindset as well. We are, you know, entrusted with honesty, integrity in all our business dealings.

Yonah Weiss (08:27):

And that’s something that you can’t really do if you’re not involved in a, in a business, so all kinds. And it’s really, um, something that I take very seriously and think about, you know, I spend hours every day, uh, studying and praying. And that to me is like, you know, the same kind of line that people talk about, well, you gotta start your day off, right. And morning routine and all these kinds of things, because everyone understands that if you want to live and ultimately happy life, you have to focus on those things that bring you the most joy

Reed Goossens (08:58):

A hundred percent. And I’ve from a personal point of view, I know being an entrepreneur and just grind, grind, grind, grind, hustle, hustle, hustle. It’s always about this, uh, this, this, this movement towards being more in, in, I saw a really great meme the other day, and I don’t follow a lot of memes, but, you know, it was a, it was a pie chart and there was a pie chart up the top. And it said, what I originally thought success looked like. And as a pie chart of 100% hard work, what actually success looks like sleep, exercise, meditation, some hard work, you know, but also being more of a balanced. And that was just so what you’re saying about how you have to be balanced across your spirituality, your business, you’re being, self-aware having a right mindset. It all comes together to be a good entrepreneur, to be a good business leader, to be a good person.

Reed Goossens (09:45):

And it starts with basic stuff that you, you know, you take for granted, don’t take it for granted like a family, like the fact that you get to breathe and walk on this earth and enjoy the sunshine, you know, like that sort of stuff. And, and that self-awareness is so important. And then applying that to what your, your business it comes through and dusts people want to do business with you because they resonate with what you stand for. Right. And that’s exactly who you are. Exactly. I love it. I love that. Um, so, so in and around that, how are we going to talk about cost segregation? Cause that’s what you’re an expert in. So where’s where does cost segregation fit into the whole pie? Uh, if we were talking about a pie chart. Yeah,

Yonah Weiss (10:21):

Sure. It was, um, you know, at a certain point that I was involved in real estate doing various different things. And, but having my background being in teaching, that’s really where my passion lies and that’s what I’m good at. Okay. Those are the best. One of the best skills that I have is the ability to learn something of, you know, pretty complex, uh, concept steps, and then teach them and be able to give them over in a very simplified way. So anyone can understand. And I was kind of searching for something within real estate. It’s a fix and flips. I was brokering. I was doing a lot of things, trying to invest, trying to find deals and a position at this company that I currently work for Madison commercial real estate services, and specifically the Madison specks division, which is the biggest national conservation company.

Yonah Weiss (11:07):

They were looking for someone business development. And I was like, okay, let’s see if this can work. I learned about constantly, I knew a little bit about it, but I learned more deeply and got to spend a, you know, a lot of time with the CPAs, the engineers who’ve been doing this for decades, really the experts. And I just took borrowed from their expertise really and started, you know, getting on podcasts like this and starting just to get the word out. And I found something very fascinating because as soon as I got involved in this company, I went out and started asking every single person that I knew in the real estate world, whether they were brokers where the owners, developers. And I just asked them, what do you think about cost segregation? I started working for this company and I got to, um, completely opposite answers.

Yonah Weiss (11:54):

And those are the only two answers that I got. There was nothing in between. And one side of it was constantly, irrigation is awesome. I use it on every single property. It’s a no brainer saving me so much money. Absolutely been doing it for years. The second answer was I have no idea what that is. So I saw this huge gap and, and, you know, the majority of the answers were, I have no idea what this is. So I’m talking to real estate investors, talking to brokers, talking to people who were in the industry for years. No idea what it is. I saw this huge gap knowledge gap, and I started to realize, well, this is a great opportunity, right? Anytime when you have a, a real big lack or a gap, there’s opportunity lies. So I’m like I can take my skills and just apply them and be able to start teaching people, get them, uh, to help them really. And it’s helping people save taxes. So it’s really everything that I love all combined in one,

Reed Goossens (12:47):

Right? For those people out there who may not know what cost segregation is, do you wanna just quickly give a high-level 32nd pitch of what it is? Absolutely.

Yonah Weiss (12:56):

It’s really a real estate tax deduction. So it’s an advanced form of depreciation and depreciation is a tax income tax deduction that you get when you buy a piece of property besides for your personal residence. So if you invest in real estate, you get this tax deduction called depreciation cost. Segregation is just breaking down that depreciation into different categories that allows you to take bigger tax deductions in the earlier years of ownership.

Reed Goossens (13:24):

That’s, that’s beautifully said. And then for those people who I’m going to add a little bit more to that, there’s two types of depreciation from the IRS point of view, right? There is the standard straight line. I think it’s 27 and a half years for [inaudible] and 35 years for commercial. Is that, is that correct? Is that right? Nine years for community non-use. Yep. And, and, and really, I know, cause I use it on all my deals. It’s, it’s just, you buy a deal. We close, we go, we do it. Then we come back a year later and see all what the improvements are and we’ll get into that and how I do it in my, in my business. But talk to me about the 39 years, because I know that a lot of, at least when I first got started here in the United States, when I was in Rezi and fixing and flipping cost segregation, didn’t make a lot of sense because it just wasn’t, it cost you a couple of thousand bucks to get these engineers out.

Reed Goossens (14:12):

And it just like, ah, stuff. And I’m going to use a 27 and a half year number and, or depreciated over 27 and a half years. Right. But let’s now you’ve got a bigger multi-family or office terror or something that is worth a lot more. You can go and break up the parts then. Cause nothing. Now things depreciate over a period of time. And for those listeners out there, if I have a fridge, fridge might not last me 27 years, right. I have a carpet. It might not last me 27 years. The building may last the structure of the building, the concrete, the rebar, the roof, maybe not the roof, but you know, the siding it’s, it’s going to stand up for 27 years, but, or 39 years in a commercial world. But what are the parts of it? Cause that’s where I think that the, the nuts and bolts come down and when people can really understand it is accelerating those little bits and pieces within the building that help you accelerate that depreciation and thus investors can benefit quicker from it. Yeah.

Yonah Weiss (15:01):

So let’s break it down a little more simply. So, um, when you and depreciation, by the way, it sounds like a negative thing, right? It sounds like your building’s actually going down in value, but it’s really just a borrowed term. And I want to make this really clear. It’s a borrowed term in the sense that you’re building your property is probably going up in value, right? It’s appreciating, but the IRS gives you a tax deduction that they call depreciation based on the concept that things go down in value. And it’s true that certain components will actually be replaced over a certain period of time. And that’s really why they get shorter lives. And you can take the value of those over shorter periods of time. But basically what we’re doing is we’re breaking down the building. It used to be called component depreciation. So conservation is, is a relatively new term, uh, within the last 15 years or so.

Yonah Weiss (15:48):

And what happened was, um, the IRS says, yes, the whole property, you lump it together and you take a tax deduction divided by 27 and a half years. So a little bit every single year or commercial 39 years, and you get that amount, that’s lumping it like you called straight-line depreciation, lumping it altogether, which is going to get you about a two to 3% on average, a deduction of the cost of your property every single year. Okay. If you buy a million dollar property, you’re getting between 20 and $30,000 of tax write-off okay. Reducing your tax liability every single year. However,

Reed Goossens (16:25):

Just for owning that building, just

Yonah Weiss (16:26):

Running the billing. That’s right. That’s, that’s part of the, the tax incentive of, you know, investing in real estate is the IRS gives you this depreciation deduction is right off. However, if you have more of a tax liability, if you’re making more money, so you want to be able to find ways or strategies to be able to reduce your taxable liability. And that’s where conservation comes in, because it actually allows you to, well, you know, in all honesty, the proper way to depreciate your property is to say, well, like you said, the fridge, the carpeting, the cabinets, all this stuff in the building that is not structural depreciates on a five-year schedule. And I can take the value of those as a tax write-off much faster. So if I’m allowed to do that, why wouldn’t I? And so you, you made a great point in saying at a certain point, you know, small fix and flips small residential and single families.

Yonah Weiss (17:16):

It probably doesn’t make sense because the cost of getting it done is probably going to be, you know, equal or somewhere to how much tax deductions I’m even going to get. But the bigger the property is the more tax deductions you’ll get. So it obviously makes more sense because the fee, the price to get the study done is not contingent on the tax savings, which is really important point. Um, so it really, the more you scale up, the more deductions you’ll have. So it’s probably the biggest tax strategy out there for people in the real estate business to actually make money and make that money tax-free.

Reed Goossens (17:48):

And that’s part of why we invest in hot assets, right? Like you can go invest in paper assets, but you don’t get the depreciation. You can get, you can get an appreciation, you get cash flow from your stock, but it will never actually, you can not, you can’t appreciate anything against, and thus depreciation helps you write off any of the gains that you have throughout a hold. So for example, you get, you have a hundred thousand dollars invested in a deal. You get $10,000 in dividends or cash flow from the year. Your depreciation will be able to be used against that $10,000. And hopefully the depreciation equals what you get. So you don’t actually have to pay taxes on that 10 GS if I summed that up.

Yonah Weiss (18:24):

Right. Exactly. And exactly you send there’s pretty much no other investment vehicle that I know of, um, aside for maybe oil and gas, but you know, not taking that aside that can get you the returns and be able to be tax-free money, which is, you know, for even a passive investor is incredible.

Reed Goossens (18:43):

Yup. And so talk to me about the, if I had a $2 million fix and flip, would that make sense to go and do a cost SEG on that?

Yonah Weiss (18:51):

So depreciation and I’ll just use conservation depreciation interchangeably, because like I said, it’s, it’s not something different. It’s just more advanced form. Um, is, is something that is only a deduction for rental property. Okay. It’s rental property. And so if you have a fix and flip that is transactional, meaning you’re not actually renting it out, then you can’t do that. However, if you do like, for example, the Berber strategy, right,

Reed Goossens (19:16):

Right. You buy right pockets,

Yonah Weiss (19:22):

Buy renovates, uh, refinance, uh, repeat whatever it is. Okay. When you doing that and you’re actually holding it as a rental property, I forgot rent in there. You renting it out. Then you get the depreciation deduction because you place it in service. Even if you go ahead and sell it, maybe a year later, you can take depreciation, it might be advantageous, but here’s something that, um, just to kind of couple with that, I know many people who are involved in fixing flips and they also have other rental properties, um, as well. And part of the reason why they’re doing this is because fixing flips is transactional. Transactional income is taxed at the highest possible rate, and you don’t get the depreciation deduction to offset that. But if you have rental properties as well, you can get the depreciation. And if you’re a full-time real estate investor, real estate professional, you can use the deductions from your rental properties, the cost segregation to offset the income from your fix and flips or you’re wholesaling or other activities or brokering activities. So there, there’s a way to kind of combine that to actually maximize, uh, the deductions.

Reed Goossens (20:27):

I love it. No, I think that’s, that’s, that’s super important. And I guess my next question for you is, you know, cost segregation like debt, like accounting, it’s a, it’s a service-based business, right? It’s a commodity. You can go and choose a plethora of different companies out there. So what makes you your company and, you know, we’re about earlier about who you are and your spirituality, how does that resonate with what you do too? So do I know that eyes Reed, Goossens bringing my portfolio with wild horn capital over to you to say, what, what makes you better than who I’m currently using today?

Yonah Weiss (20:59):

Well, obviously it’s the beard. I mean

Reed Goossens (21:03):

The good looks in the Viet. Right? Right. Exactly.

Yonah Weiss (21:05):

But no, but honestly, so we’re like the largest national conservation doing this. I mean, the experience that we have in Madison specs has been around for 16 years, for example. But I mean, I think the most important I talk up our company because I think there are many, um, companies like ours that are exists in the country that are comparable and what you’re going to look for, really a few things. Number one, you’re going to look for someone that has the experience, right. They have, you know, they’ve stood up to audits for example, right? They’re going to stand behind their work in the event of an audit because again, it’s tax related work. You want to make sure that everything is compliant. Um, second thing is, I would say that they are entrepreneurial. I mean, if business, people in general are, but you’ll have a lot of accounting firms, for example, that include conservation as part of their service.

Yonah Weiss (21:57):

So we’re not an accounting firm. We specialize in this and that’s all we do. And therefore we are a business entrepreneur and growing like that have the very similar mindset, very relatable to a lot of real estate investors who are doing the same thing. So there’s, there’s that kind of alignment of purpose. Uh, like I like to look at it and like any service or commodity, as you know, it’s really about, you know, who, you know, it’s about the trust factor. It’s about, you know, are they giving me the best, uh, the time that I’m looking for. And, and it all comes back to the beard. I mean, that’s really the truth.

Reed Goossens (22:33):

Well, but for those people, who’ve never done cost negotiating. They’re going to go out and buy their first 50 unit property or 20 unit property somewhere where it makes sense. Right. Um, what are you sort of looking at from a cost perspective and does it cost the same on a 20 unit as it does a 300 unit? Um, and maybe you can walk people through that because that’s also a big factor when you’re comparing different cost segregation companies is the price, right? Absolutely.

Yonah Weiss (22:55):

If you’re, you know, like anything, if you’re looking at it from a commodity perspective, absolutely. A hundred percent, it is a cost is one of the big factors there. And I totally get that. Totally understand that the cost, as I mentioned, is non not contingent to tax savings, which there are, as I’ve heard some companies that actually do that, which is a little bit fishy in terms of a tax compliance, because you’re basically someone, a third party is supposedly a third party is telling the IRS, you should get X amount of deductions and we’ll take a piece of that.

Reed Goossens (23:27):

So they have, maybe you should open yourself up to say, oh, do I need a haircut Baba? I’m like, eh, he’s a good haircut. You know what I mean? Exactly.

Yonah Weiss (23:34):

You have a conflict of interest there. Um, but as a third re true third party, we’re at being the biggest in the country, we are able to cut our expenses, you know, by a lot. So we’re probably the most competitive out there in terms of pricing, typically for multi-family properties somewhere between four to $6,000 as a, you know, as of now, uh, when you’re listening to this in 2021, that’s kind of our, our fee structure. And it does depend a little bit on the size of the property, the number of units, if it’s a, you know, garden style, how many buildings there are, how many different unit layout types there are, et cetera. So there are some of those factors, but very different. So if you buy a million dollar property versus a $10 million property, you know, 20 units versus a, you know, 300 units, their fee is pretty much going to be the same, um, you know, give or take. Um, so therefore it starts to, you know, makes exponentially more sense the larger the property.

Reed Goossens (24:27):

Yep. No, that, that, that’s, that’s a very good and very good pricing by the way that I know we don’t get that on our pricing. So I need to, I need to come over and get a quote. Um, yeah, look, but, but, but what, what do you expect back as an owner? Like I know there’s reports that come back and I, I, as an owner to, to this day, I let my CPA deal with it, but I have a third party CPA, a third-party costs irrigation company. And to make sure that those two are chatting, but what should I be looking for in the resulting report as an owner to make sure that they’re doing what they say they’re going to do?

Yonah Weiss (24:58):

Well, I think part of the process, and we do this, I believe every, every company that’s out there that is a, you know, a reputable company gives an upfront kind of analysis of projections of what you can expect ahead of time. So it’s really transparent in that. We’re going to tell you what your minimal tax deduction, what your minimal tax benefit is going to be, even before we start the process right. For free. We’ll tell you that. So what can you expect? I mean, I think it should tie back into that, right? You will have your expectations from that kind of free consultation, uh, ahead of time. But in terms of, you know, actual numbers, it depends, I’d say practically speaking for multi-family properties, you’re looking at about, you know, average 25%, uh, you know, anywhere between 20 to 30% of, and sometimes more of reallocation. So to put that into numbers. So it makes sense if you buy a million dollar property, you can look to about 200 to $250,000 of that to take as accelerated depreciation. Okay. And with, with the new law called bonus depreciation, you can actually take that all in the first year as a tax write off.

Reed Goossens (26:02):

Interesting. No, that’s and that’s, that was very well said. I think it’s good to understand what you’re expecting to ride off in, in, in, in, around the 25%. But, um, and so that’s what you would advise when you’re looking at a report to say, okay, my value of my property is worth X. So thus I should be thinking around the 20 to 30% of a depreciation should be written into the report. And then I guess, how do you make sure you’re not, they’re not fraudulent to your point. Like all those people who like, oh, we just, we’re doing a fee for, uh, how much tax we save you, you know, they’re going to be pushing the upper echelon of it to make, how do I, as the owner make sure I’m not being hoodwinked, if you can even tell by report. Yeah.

Yonah Weiss (26:39):

I mean, you know, it’s, that’s a great question. It’s, it’s very difficult from a, you know, a layman’s perspective to, to kind of understand the ins and outs of, I would hope that there’s enough trust there, that the people that are doing it have the experience and are doing it correctly and accurately and all, according to the tax, you know, the tax code that audit guide, which is put out by the IRS. And so there are a lot of principles. It’s not like you can really kind of make it up. You have to follow the principles that are there. So it’s not like there’s going to be too much discrepancy between one company and another, if they’re all doing it right. Um, there may be some that are more aggressive or maybe use certain different types of methodologies, but, uh, all of a sudden done there, there’s probably not much to discrepancy there.

Reed Goossens (27:24):

And I think that back to what I said before, it’s about your team. I get mine from, from, from, from a conservation group, I then make sure my CPA’s reviewing it right, because that’s what I pay him for. And he’s making sure that it’s all staying on the train lines and not, not veering off. Uh, and then thus we move forward and make sure that all our investors, uh, participate in that depreciation in the first couple of years. Um, so, so, you know, I guess the big question here is, is what you got planned in 2021. Um, and I, another question before we get into 21, do you have businesses outside the United States? Cause we’re talking about very, and I know where this shows all about us investing. It’s the IRS, but you’re in Jerusalem. So like you’re, you’re, you’re in Israel, like what do they have bonus depreciation and cost segregation in Israel?

Yonah Weiss (28:08):

Uh, they don’t, I don’t think they’re, as far as I know, and I’m not a tax expert, um, you know, outside of the United States. But, uh, and, and as I said, I work remotely. So I kind of have the best of both worlds. I live where I love to live and I get to work where I love to work. And, uh, you know, the company is totally, you know, fully based in the U S uh, there is really something very interesting in terms of depreciation outside of the U S is that in terms of other countries tax laws, I’m not aware that it exists. There are certain things like depreciation in general, but accelerated depreciation, as far as I know, does not exist anywhere else. One thing that does exist is if you are a us taxpayer and you are an owner and you pay taxes and you own a commercial property outside of the us, you can actually take depreciation on that. And you can use cost segregation on your commercial property that is located outside of the U S for your us taxes.

Reed Goossens (29:06):

Interesting, very interesting. I will say, look at the tax treaty because the us has a tax treaty with, with other countries. And I know that from a layman’s term, and this is not necessarily with cost segregation, but I pay tax. If I’m in a us citizen who lives it, because I just know from my, my wife, if she lives in Australia, she has to report to the United States and then there’s a treaty. So she’ll get a credit on the Australian tax that she has to pay. What’s called the Australian tax office. If she happened to live in Australia and it’d be paying taxes. So it sort of goes all the way, right. That comes full circle. But that’s very interesting. It’s very similar to 10 31 exchanges if you’re a US-based citizen, but you have a 10th, you own international real estate, you can 10 31 into other international real estate if you’re us based.

Reed Goossens (29:46):

So it’s, it’s, it’s, it is a lot of different levels out there. Just, just know that people who, who, who are investing outside the United States, who might be us citizens, um, now, you know, coming into what are we doing in 2021? What what’s, what’s the world looking like for you post COVID? What, if we can even say that word now? I don’t know if we’re going to even say that word. Yeah. I think there’s still Incode, but hopefully the coming towards some sort of tail end with the vaccine being rolled out and all that sort of stuff,

Yonah Weiss (30:11):

You know, um, for me personally, I I’m really focused on investing in the U S so that’s a, that’s really my goal, um, for, for 2021 is to be more involved on the general partnership side of some real estate multi-family specifically deals. Uh, I did have a very small role in a deal back in, uh, last fall of 2020. And that was kind of my getting my feet wet for the first time in larger multi-family deals. So that’s really where I’m moving and, and heading in the direction kind of on the side for now, but, uh, hopefully transitioning more into that world, uh, in the future.

Reed Goossens (30:47):

Well, I love it. I love those ambitions. You got to start somewhere, right, man, you got to eat, you don’t get to deal number 10 without doing deal number one, and that can in any shape or form that, that does tell me a little bit, before we get into the top five missing tips, you also have a podcast. What is that all about and how are you providing incredible information back to your purpose in life of the teaching? How has that been a real good element or tool that you’ve used into spreading the word?

Yonah Weiss (31:10):

So I love these conversations, right? And, and I’ve been actually what prompted me to start the podcast in the first place? Weiss advice is I had been a guest on about a hundred and 150 podcasts or so, and I love the interactions. I really do. I love this medium. I love social media and, you know, the ability to take this and, you know, kind of share the message at large with, uh, you know, multiple people all at once kind of scaling those relationships. To me, that was fascinating from the guest side of things. And when I decided to make a podcast, um, as a host, I was looking to see, well, I love real estate. I want to be involved in real estate, but I don’t want it to be like all the other hundreds of podcasts that people are starting every other week. Um, uh, I want to do something a little bit unique. And so I took, obviously the, the name was kind of catchy, right? Weiss advice. And the concept is really to interview people who are in the real estate industry, but not necessarily to talk subject matter, they would just have a conversation more about who they are and what they’re doing and their stories and things like that. So it’s really more, um, personal get to know people kind of more like a talk show than a real estate course that like a lot of podcasts are,

Reed Goossens (32:26):

Oh, I love it. And that’s part of what this podcast is morphed into after being going over it, we come to 250 episodes five years ago. There’s only so much real estate you can talk about. And this really gets into more the personal journeys, the struggles, because everyone has a journey. And it’s, it’s great to listen to this medium and hear others who have been on that journey with you because entrepreneurship can be so lonely at times. And that’s the best part about podcasting. And that’s why I also love this medium getting to know people who live halfway across the world in Jerusalem, uh, being on this, on this show will make, we are coming to the end of the show. And at the end of every show, we’d like to do the top five investing tips, ready to

Yonah Weiss (33:04):

Get into it. Sure. Let’s go,

Reed Goossens (33:06):

Mate. What is the daily habit that you practice to keep on track towards your goals?

Yonah Weiss (33:11):

I think the biggest habit that I have that keeps me in line with my goals goes back to the spiritual thing. So it’s, it’s really focusing. Some people will call it meditation, but it’s really praying and kind of focusing the energy because that really, um, dictates how your whole day is going to be. So starting off the day with the right mindset, that’s what it’s all about.

Reed Goossens (33:30):

I love it. I’ve started meditating the last couple of years and I’ve, I don’t do it in the morning. I just I’m on my days off, you know, and not, not in alignment with, uh, with myself. And it just, I, I be a little bit grouchy. My question. Number two, who’s the most influential person in your career to date?

Yonah Weiss (33:50):

Uh, there are so many on different levels, but I would say because of the, uh, large effect or influence that I’ve had with social media and how I’ve been able to kind of brand myself and do that. I think Gary V Gary Vaynerchuk had, um, very influential. Not that he knows that, but nothing knows that for millions of people had a really great effect and just kind of the approach of how to, how to approach, uh, you know, business and sales and social media in general.

Reed Goossens (34:18):

Love it. Now, Gobi is I would love to get him on the show, then you’ve gotta pay to get paid, to play with him. But, um, uh, but I’d love to maybe one day get him on the show, but he had a very influential person in, in such breaks it down in a way that, you know, people might say mistakes, crass, but I think he just shoots it, shoots it like it is, and here’s what he is. And he’s authentic and you’re either attracted to it or not. So it goes back to your, your purpose and, and being true to yourself. So I think that’s really important. Um, what is the most influential tool in your business? And when I say tool, it could be a physical tool, like a, a journal or a phone, or there might be a piece of software that you just can’t run your business without. And I’m sure being in Jerusalem, I’m sure I can already determine which ones it’s going to be.

Yonah Weiss (34:58):

I was gonna say zoom, but I think that’s pretty much what everyone is going to say nowadays, because it has been, but I’ll, I’ll actually say, um, Calendly. That’s a, you know, a calendar tool that a lot of people use. I use it for multiple things and literally I have my calendar filled up, uh, every day without my knowledge. Right. And it’s just like booking appointments and I already have, you know, everything’s working kind of streamlined that way. So that’s been saved me countless, countless hours of work. Um, in the last couple years I’ve been using it well, yeah,

Reed Goossens (35:28):

I’m a huge, huge fan of cam Lee. There’s a few little functionality things with the podcast that I’d like to change, but, um, yeah, I love Catalina and its ability to streamline that, that conversation. Um, question number four in one sentence, what has been the biggest failure in your life and what’d you learn from that failure?

Yonah Weiss (35:47):

I don’t like to view things as failures. Um, I can’t really see failure as a lesson. Yeah. Lessons are really, you know, kind of like rock leaf always says like they’re seminars, right? They’re teaching you, uh, things like that. Um, I would say I actually had a big failure. Okay. Now, remembering something that I had a development deal that, uh, we’re about to close on. And it was kind of my ego that got in the way of thinking that this was going to be a great deal. And even though the attorney, one of the attorneys had major concerns about certain issues. My ego kind of got in the way and, and was trying to push the deal through until the last minute until we literally pulled out at the last minute. And thank God we did because that attorney, as we saw in hindsight was a hundred percent correct. Wow. No, that was a, that was a big failure that, you know, that I learned from, you know, don’t trust your ego trust, uh, someone who’s more objective.

Reed Goossens (36:49):

Yeah. Ego can cause so many issues. I can go. Have you ever read the book? Ego is the enemy by Ryan holiday?

Yonah Weiss (36:56):

I have not, but I’ve, I’ve seen it quoted many times.

Reed Goossens (36:58):

Yeah. It’s, it’s a good, it’s a good little book, uh, on, on, in and around a year on how much it can just ruin business relationships, even personal relationships. So it can be quite toxic if you don’t check it at the door, which comes back to meditation and self-awareness which we could spend a whole podcast talking about, uh, about that exact same exact thing. Um, question number five. And last question is where can people reach you to continue the conversation they want to be in your sphere? Where do they go

Yonah Weiss (37:21):

Best place to find me is LinkedIn. I’m actually very active on that platform. Check it actually more often than email and respond there. Or you can go to Yona weiss.com.

Reed Goossens (37:32):

Awesome mate. Well, look, I want to thank you so much for jumping on the show today. I want to just quickly summarize what you have given the audience today. And I think the, the, the breaking down cost segregation, as much as you don’t necessarily need to be an expert in it, you do need to understand the functionality of it, of accelerated appreciation over long period of time. It probably only does make sense the larger the assets you’re doing. And it was interesting to hear about the transactional piece was I didn’t actually, didn’t, wasn’t quite aware of that. If you’re doing a two, $3 million fix and flip you’re being transactional, thus you can’t qualify for cost segregation. So really awesome stuff, loved your pricing. Um, and then come back to trust and transparency because it is a service based business. You have to know the people you’re getting in doing business with are going to keep your best interest at heart and not have, you know, do something fraudulent with the IRS that could get you to a lot of trouble. Uh, did I leave anything out?

Yonah Weiss (38:24):

Um, the good looking beard, I guess

Reed Goossens (38:25):

That’s, that’s exactly right. The good looking beard. I forgot all about the good looking Viet. Yeah. It’s it’s it’s how long has it now it looks like it’s pretty footlong. Do you use any, uh, any conditioner or would like to keep it soft?

Yonah Weiss (38:40):

Uh, yeah. You know, and just keeps it pretty, pretty natural, but, uh, you know, every

Reed Goossens (38:44):

Now and then the wash doesn’t say know, you need to wash that.

Yonah Weiss (38:48):

I don’t mean all natural that I’m not washing it.

Reed Goossens (38:54):

I love it, man. Well, we’ve got it. Thank you so much for jumping on the show. Enjoy the rest of your day. And we will catch up very, very soon. Will they have another cracking episode? Jam pack was some incredible advice from Yona Weiss. If you want to know anything about him, go over to LinkedIn and search his name. W O Y O N a H w E I S S on LinkedIn. It’s also Yona weist.com. He’s got a lot of awesome stuff going on in the cost segregation world. I want to thank you all again for taking some time out of your day to tune in, to, you know, to learn more about what we have to give here on the show. We’re going to do it all again next week. So remember be bold, be brave and go give life a crack.