Hall CPA PLLC

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Hall CPA PLLC Real Estate CPAs and advisors helping clients reduce taxes and streamline real estate ventures.

The Real Estate CPA™ is owned by Hall CPA PLLC and was created to better identify with and service real estate investors and business owners. We only take on clients that are in the real estate industry which gives us an edge on the competition. With The Real Estate CPA™, you will receive financial, accounting, and tax expertise to enrich your real estate portfolio and business.

10/16/2026

So many investors miss this.

Not because it’s complicated.

Because no one brings it up.

If you’ve owned a property for a few years and never run a cost seg study...

You likely under-depreciated it.

That means you paid more tax than you needed to.

The fix is straightforward.

No amendments. No mess.

You file Form 3115.

Say you own a $2.5M property.

Standard depreciation is about $60K a year.

A study finds ~$600K eligible for shorter lives.

That’s ~$300K+ in missed depreciation.

Taken all in one year.

Most firms won’t flag this.

They’re filing returns, not looking backward.

We can tell you quickly if it’s worth doing.

If it’s not, we’ll say that too.

⚡ Fill out the form at the link in the comments to get started.

10/15/2026

You think you’re managing your investments, but if you aren’t measuring them, you’re guessing.

Neal Bawa, a former tech founder who has invested in apartments since 2013, joins Nate and Tom to talk about using data to make real estate decisions. He explains where he sees multifamily rents heading over the next two years. Neal also covers why he thinks most people who call themselves data-driven aren’t, why he’s buying retiring CPA firms, and what AI means for the accounting profession.

⚡The link is in the comments below.

10/15/2026

We just passed 9/15, and today is 10/15...

If one of the only times you hear from your accountant is around these deadlines, that’s a problem.

Most real estate investors and business owners think they’re paying too much in taxes because they need a better accountant.

They’re half right.

The real problem is they don’t have a plan.

They have a preparer.

A preparer looks backward.

They take last year’s numbers, drop them into the software, and report what already happened.

By the time they touch your return, the year is closed, and every meaningful decision is behind you.

A planner looks forward.

They map out how you buy, hold, document, and sell before December 31, while those decisions still count.

Same profession.

Different outcome.

We see the cost of that gap all the time.

The STR investor who ran a cost segregation study but never documented material participation, which invites an audit.

The business owner whose accountant put their rentals in an S-Corp, which invites bad taxable events.

The high earner who sold a property, got hit with depreciation recapture, and never had the conversation of how to exit for tax.

None of these were bad taxpayers.

They just didn’t have anyone thinking ahead for them.

The taxpayers who keep the most money aren’t the ones with the most aggressive strategies.

They’re the ones who planned early, documented well, and worked with a team that knows real estate.

If your current relationship is “send us your documents in February, sign in April”...

The year is closing on decisions you can’t get back.

Q4 is when our calendar fills up fastest.

⚡ If you want to secure your spot before year-end, fill out the form in the comments to get started.

10/14/2026

You can qualify as a real estate professional...

Log 750+ hours.

Spend the majority of your time in real estate.

And still have your losses treated as passive.

Why?

You missed the grouping election.

Under §469, each rental property is treated as a separate activity.

That means you have to materially participate in each one.

Not just your portfolio as a whole.

The fix is the §1.469-9(g) election.

It lets you treat all your rentals as one activity.

Now your hours aggregate.

And your losses can become non-passive.

But you generally can’t fix this later with an amended return.

It has to be done with the original filing.

If you’ve got multiple rentals and haven’t explicitly made the election, assume you don’t have it.

We fix this more often than we should.

⚡ Fill out the form at the link in the comments to get started.

10/13/2026

Hands-off real estate has a cost. Before you buy a DST, know what you’re trading away.

In this episode of the Tax Smart REI podcast, Tom and Nate welcome Julia Fritzlen of Insight Investment Advisors to talk about helping real estate owners exit without a large tax bill.

Julia explains how she moved from healthcare equipment financing into 1031 exchanges and Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs), and why she starts every conversation by asking what life should look like after the property is gone.

⚡The link is in the comments below.

10/13/2026

Most investors know bonus depreciation...

Section 179 gets less attention.

That can be a mistake.

Both can produce large deductions.

But they don’t work the same way.

Bonus depreciation is usually more powerful for real estate investors.

There’s no dollar cap.

It can create a loss.

And it works well with cost segregation.

Say you buy a $2M multifamily property.

A cost seg study reclassifies $400K into 5-, 7-, and 15-year property.

That $400K could qualify for 100% bonus depreciation in year one.

Section 179 is different.

You elect into it.

And it’s subject to both deduction limits and income limitations.

(It also only works for commercial property, which, hint hint, STRs are.)

So why use it?

Because there are situations where Section 179 can be better.

You want to choose which assets to expense.

Your state treats Section 179 more favorably than bonus.

Or you have business income and want to consider the self-employment tax impact.

That last one gets missed.

Bonus depreciation can create an NOL.

But NOLs do not offset self-employment tax.

Section 179 can.

For someone who owns real estate AND an operating business, that matters.

So the answer isn’t always “take as much bonus depreciation as possible.”

Sometimes bonus wins.

Sometimes Section 179 wins.

Sometimes the numbers justify using both.

You have to model it.

⚡ If you want to work with our team before year-end, fill out the form in the comments to get started.

10/12/2026

“You need a large portfolio to qualify for Real Estate Professional Status.”

Not technically.

One could be enough.

Smith v. Commissioner proved it.

Smith owned one three-unit rental.

He managed it himself and had no other job competing for his time.

The Tax Court agreed he qualified.

Now compare that to Flores v. Commissioner.

Flores also had one rental.

He logged 799 hours on it.

But he spent 1,295 hours in another business.

REPS isn’t just a 750-hour test.

You also need to spend more than half your working time in real estate.

Flores lost (such a shock).

The number of properties wasn’t the issue in either case.

The facts were.

And the documentation was.

Hit 750 hours. Get REPS. Deduct the losses.

Not how it works.

One rental can qualify.

Ten rentals don’t guarantee anything.

Getting the deduction is one thing.

Being able to defend it is another.

⚡ Fill out the form at the link in the comments to get started.

10/08/2026

Insurers don't need a big reason to deny a claim. A technicality is enough.

Nobody wants to talk about insurance until something goes wrong. In this episode of the Major League Real Estate Podcast, Nate and Tom walk through real court cases and news stories showing how real estate investors lose coverage over technicalities, from misstating a property's use (single-family vs. short-term rental) to deeding it to an LLC or family trust without updating the policy.

⚡The link is in the comments below.

10/07/2026

Someone is probably selling you our advice.


If you've read our blogs and then theirs, the topics probably sound familiar.

That's fine. We publish our content for a reason.

But reading about a strategy and knowing whether it works for you are two different things.

A LinkedIn post can tell you the 7-day STR rule exists. It can't tell you whether your co-host's hours count against you. It also can't tell you whether this is the year to run a cost seg study, or the year it just adds to a passive loss you can't use.

That part takes real experience.

Most copycat firms work with investors at one stage. We work with them at every stage: the W-2 earner who hasn't bought a property yet, the couple with three short-term rentals, the operator with fifty doors, and the sponsor running a $100 million fund.

That range changes the advice.

For the first-time buyer, the planning happens before closing. Short-term or long-term rental, whether you'll materially participate, whether a spouse could qualify for REPS. Get those right on property one, and you set up the next ten.

For the growing portfolio, it's the grouping election, entity decisions, and whether a sale should be a 1031 or a year where suspended losses absorb the gain. Each decision affects the others.

For funds, it's partnership allocations, capital accounts, carried interest, and K-1s for hundreds of LPs. Many of our clients also invest as LPs, so we know what those investors need on their own returns.

We know the questions a first-time buyer will face in five years because other clients are asking them today.

A template plan can't do that. And when it misses an election, or the hours never get documented, the money saved on the fee is usually gone many times over.

You're not paying for information.

Most of it is public, and a lot of it is ours. You're paying for someone who has worked through your situation before. Someone who knows the ins and outs. What works for you, but doesn't work for someone else. What flags an audit down the line.

If your current plan came from a template, it's worth a second look before the year closes. And if their website looks AI-generated, assume their guidance comes from there too.

We work with real estate investors at every stage to build a tax plan around their actual facts, documentation for it to hold up, and make sure it lands on the return.

If that's what you're looking for, reach out at the link in the comments.

10/06/2026

The most expensive mistake Airbnb hosts make has nothing to do with guests.

Airbnb may be collecting occupancy tax for you, but that doesn't mean you're in the clear. In this episode of the Tax Smart REI podcast, Tom and Nate talk with Serena Verma, founder of Hostvisors and Monterra Tax, about an audit that uncovered $250,000 in tax exposure and the four ways occupancy tax goes wrong: over-collection, under-collection, over-remittance, and under-remittance.

⚡The link is in the comments below.

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Washington D.C., DC

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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+12024558584

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