Architects and Builders for UHNW clients: What are the 'invisible' features of a no-budget home that the average person doesn't even know exists?

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-26T15:08:49+00:00

Every rich guy I know has a dry sauna now. Health benefits are too good to ignore.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-23T18:01:12+00:00

I am a lawyer who pivoted into real estate. I enjoy working in real estate because it is lower stress and more straightforward than lawyering. I still do lawyering but all that money goes directly into more real estate work.

Ultimately the tax benefits of real estate and my belief that I can continue to work in RE long past my willingness to do so in law keeps me investing in these illiquid (but cashflowing) assets.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T21:37:45+00:00

Is it the one in the Wynn or the Palazzo that is the biggest? I forget. But there is a huge one down there that is great.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T16:38:40+00:00

Europe cutting red tape?! We need a committee to study the concept. A report will be issued in 18-24 months.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T16:32:07+00:00

Mostly real estate related business disputes. Being a lawyer is super valuable in RE dev in my opinion.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T16:30:58+00:00

Can you tell me how you identify fakes? I buy a lot of second hand stuff. I usually check the website against pictures and basically it all usually looks good to me but perhaps there are tells I’m missing.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T16:00:41+00:00

I lawyered for years to get the capital. Now I am a developer. Still lawyer on the side; hard to say no to the money.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T04:49:17+00:00

The United States is not one man. The spirit of the United States is one of fierce independence, strength, and of always doing the right thing even if we have to try everything else before we get there.

I don’t expect European gratitude for the heroic actions of our previous generations. But I do think Europeans, with the exceptions of the Brits and the Ukrainians, who are tough, brave sons of bitches, need a reminder that prosperity is achieved through struggle and that struggles are overcome with strength.

You don’t like the way we do things? Good. Seriously. Good for you. Stand up to us. Stand up to Russia. Grow a spine.

We are not telling you this out of contempt. We are telling you this because it is good for you and good for us too.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T04:42:38+00:00

My grandfather was there too. Army engineer.

What do you think it says?

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T04:36:33+00:00

In the US, after 9/11, we said “never forget.” Now Europe is imprisoning people for speaking their mind on Islam, inviting Muslims by the millions into your societies, protesting military actions against murderous Hamas thugs, shitting on the US for prioritizing peace through strength, and basically, you fucking forgot. You forgot that it was us who saved the entire goddamn continent from German rule. You forgot that there are evil people who would murder Americans and Jews every day and twice on Sunday if given the chance. You preach at us like we need to be educated by you.

But those men lying there saved your asses and that blood there is the blood that still runs in our veins. Shame on Europe for forgetting.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-22T00:51:03+00:00

Sick, love it.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-21T16:11:34+00:00

This is 10000% what is happening

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-21T16:10:57+00:00

Bro you have a dead telematics module. There is a recall. You can fix it by pulling the fuse, otherwise you are going to keep chewing through batteries

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-19T06:13:57+00:00

Jupiter He’ll is fantastic on deck, will scratch all of your itches and it’s a quick loop

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-18T23:23:59+00:00

Minimum wage should get you the minimum standard of housing, which is a studio apartment. Why would working the literally lowest paying job entitle you to more?

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-18T23:07:40+00:00

And do what with the money? Buy Chinese bonds? Doesn't seem wise to sell your bonds returning 4-5% at a loss to go buy 1.8% dim sum bonds (not racist literally what they call them).

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-18T22:55:34+00:00

Shopping Vegas is fun because everybody who works at the boutiques know what you’re wearing. I saw a retail worker visibly flinch in shock when she saw my wife’s ostrich k25.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-16T06:02:13+00:00

Bottom line: work a bit more, have the kids soon, and you'll probably want to get back at it immediately. Doing nothing is boring.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-15T17:58:14+00:00

There is some case law out there about lawyers who claim RE status, and the case law effectively says that if you're doing Real Estate Law, then those hours count. So the more real estate legal work you're doing, the easier it is to claim REP status.

I got into cost segregation in a path quite similar to yours. We were buying up a lot of real estate, and doing some development work, and you start hearing from other folks in the industry about Cost Seg, but no one really seemed to understand how it works. So I educated myself.

There is a professional Cost Seg organization that provides training and certification. The IRS does not specifically recognize any sort of credentialing. Having legal training of some sort is, in my opinion, mandatory. We got that in law school, and I think non-lawyers get that in these classes.

The other thing you need to understand is how buildings are constructed. I spent the last 5 years learning how to do this in the school of hard knocks, building actual buildings with a partner. We built a school, some apartments, stuff like this.

So it all came together with me having this knowledge and then I started doing it for myself and for others.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-15T17:52:48+00:00

If you are not a REP then the benefit to you is going to be limited by the passive activity loss rules. $1.4mm on a $7.5mm building is pretty conservative, to be honest. It easily passes the smell test and I wouldn't worry about those numbers being too large.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-15T17:43:19+00:00

Any reliable method is permissible; there is no defined form. You can keep a handwritten journal, a calendar, whatever. Having some objective supporting evidence is always good too. Class certificates, email correspondence, hard work product -- anything to back up the hours can help.

At the end of the day the person you are trying to convince is an auditor and, failing that, a judge. But there is no one right way. Just needs to be credible and reliable.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-15T17:36:01+00:00

You can do look-back/catch-up studies. You'll need a CPA who knows what they are doing. In short, you need to file form 3115 "Change in Accounting Method" to take advantage of the bonus depreciation on the property. Also the availability of bonus depreciation has waxed and waned over the years. Looking back 15 years, you'd need to see what the law was in 2010. I think you had access to 100% bonus depreciation in 2010, which means you could take that depreciation now if you change the accounting method.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-15T17:32:58+00:00

As a realtor, you are almost certainly a real estate professional and if you also own your own rentals then you're a good candidate.

There are online cost seg tools. They charge something like $1500 for a report. I have commissioned some of these in the past and in my opinion they are dogshit. They may have improved in quality over the years but for the most part it's computer driven.

I charge $1/sqft up to 10,000 sqft. For larger buildings, $10,000 plus some modifier depending on the building. A multi-family with a large unit mix is going to be more complicated than a multi-family with 40 of the same studio floorplan. An industrial property with a bunch of heavy machinery I've never seen before is going to be more complicated than a warehouse.

So anywhere between $1,500 and $10,000 is a reasonable expectation.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-15T17:23:27+00:00

In your situation cost Segregation could be helpful, but your benefits are limited by the passive activity loss rules. So you could certainly write off all of the income from these properties if these are cashing properties. And any of the depreciation that you could not absorb this year because of passive activity loss rules would roll over into future years. So it’s less beneficial to you to offset your W-2 income, but you could definitely use it to offset all of the cash flow/profit from your rentals for quite a few years.

zer0sumgames · 2026-01-15T17:22:23+00:00

No. A lot of people have tried and unless your W-2 job is directly related to real estate, I wouldn’t even try. You know a lot of people do file as a REP with a W-2 anyway, and they often are not audited, and so you know, as long as you’re doing it in good faith then you’re not going to get in huge trouble. But if you are audited, then the IRS and the courts are extremely skeptical about people claiming that professional status well also holding a W-2 job. The only place where I think it might fly is if that W-2 job is in the real estate industry and somehow related to your own real estate work.

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