#real-estate
Real estate accounting, property tracking, and investment management
Idaho's HB 583, effective July 1, 2026, bans cities from requiring STR licenses, owner-occupancy, night caps, or mandatory property managers — but hosts must still register with the State Tax Commission and remit lodging taxes on stays of 30 days or fewer.
The NFIP's authority to issue and renew flood insurance expires September 30, 2026 unless Congress reauthorizes it. During a lapse, existing policies stay in force and claims are still paid, but no new or renewal policies can be written — a risk for small businesses closing on property, refinancing, or renewing coverage in flood zones. Here's what happens in a lapse and how to prepare.
A three-way reconciliation matches three numbers every cycle: the adjusted trust bank balance, the book balance, and the sum of every client file ledger. Here's how title and escrow agencies run it under ALTA's roughly 10-business-day standard, the five discrepancies auditors flag most, and why it's the last defense against real estate wire fraud that cost victims over $275 million in 2025.
RentGrow paid a $2.25 million civil penalty to settle FTC allegations of FCRA violations: duplicated eviction and criminal records, an undisclosed data source, and mishandled consumer disputes. Here is what the consent order requires, and the separate FCRA obligations — permissible purpose, written consent, adverse action notices — that any business using screening reports must still meet.
A monthly work-in-progress (WIP) schedule turns four numbers per job — contract price, estimated cost, costs to date, and billings to date — into an early warning for overbilling and underbilling, the cash-flow gaps that sink profitable builders. Spec builders also differ from contract builders on revenue recognition, since homes held as inventory typically use the completed contract method under the IRC Section 460 home construction exemption.
A small building's first-year deduction can triple with cost segregation — reclassify 5-year, 7-year, and 15-year pieces, elect Section 179/bonus where it helps, and document the allocation the ATG expects.
Depreciation recapture taxes the deductions you already took when you sell a business asset at a gain — Section 1245 equipment gains are recaptured as ordinary income at rates up to 37%, while Section 1250 real estate depreciation is capped at 25%. With 100% bonus depreciation restored and the Section 179 limit at $2,560,000 for 2026, a fully expensed asset has a $0 basis from day one, so nearly the entire sale price becomes taxable. Here's how the rules split, a worked example, and five strategies owners use to manage the bill.
IRS Chief Counsel Advice CCA 202628009 (July 10, 2026) held that a demand-based deficit restoration obligation enforceable only by withholding future distributions is not unconditional, failing both the §1.704-1(b) economic-effect safe harbor and the §1.752-2(b) recourse-liability test — a fact pattern common in family LP boilerplate that can reallocate recourse debt and suspend previously deducted losses.
The FTC's Junk Fees Rule, in effect since May 2025, requires live-event ticket sellers and short-term lodging hosts to display all-in total prices upfront, with violations carrying civil penalties of up to $51,744 each and a $10 million StubHub settlement already on the books.
Home inspectors average one liability claim over a career and pay roughly $989/year for E&O insurance, so amortizing that premium per job and tracking mileage, report-writing time, and licensing renewals on Schedule C is what separates a profitable inspection business from one guessing at its margins.
NAR's $52.25 million Tuccori settlement, approved April 10, 2026, doesn't change buyer-agent commission rules — it makes the August 2024 Sitzer/Burnett practice changes permanent, so agents must book gross commission across multiple funding sources rather than treating deposits as a single income line.
Padel clubs run four or five overlapping revenue streams on one fixed asset; profitable operators track court-hour utilization by time band, book membership cash as deferred revenue instead of income, and recover a $500K-$1.5M build-out in 18-30 months at 60-70% peak utilization.
