Real Estate & Construction Accounting Blog

First Energy, along with other electrical power generation companies throughout Ohio, is offering a significant rebate program called Energy Save Ohio.

This program offers incentives on the purchase of high efficiency equipment and other energy-saving measures. The main benefit is a pre-qualified, pre-approved rebate program, where by a lighting contractor will come in to your facility, perform an inspection of your current fixtures and bulbs, perform an analysis of the overall energy savings,...

Suggested Course of Action for Sub-Contractors, General Contractors and Owners

Coauthored by:
Nick Delguyd, CPA, GACR
Jeff Phillips, CIC, CRM

It is standard construction industry practice to verify adequate insurance coverage for contractors through the use of a certificate of liability insurance, a standard form produced by ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development,) an insurance organization.
 

In September 2009, ACORD issued a new version of the certificate of...

A Cleveland judge recently fined two South Carolina real estate companies more than $13 million for their persistent failure to fix derelict property conditions. This marks the largest collective fines the court has imposed.

According to this article at Cleveland.com, “The cases involve major violations at eight properties and less significant ones at five others. The earliest complaints date to January 2008. The judge calculated the fines from the number of violations, the number of days they...

The First Time Homebuyer credit has been extended, but not everyone is eligible to continue to take advantage of this credit. Only buyers who were under contract prior to the previous deadline of April 30 can take advantage of this extension to close by September 30 and receive the $8,000 credit.

One of the main reasons for the extension is that there are a high volume of short sales under contract but not scheduled to close by June 30^th. This is mainly due to short sales requiring seller side...

Real estate professionals may want to keep a close eye on the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (H.R. 4213). The bill, which would extend the filing deadline for existing tiers of unemployment benefits and extend COBRA health care subsidies for the unemployed, contains a provision to alter the way “carried interest” is taxed.

Carried interest, according to Building Owners and Managers Association International, is described as follows –

“Real estate is a long-term, risk–based...

Often times when negotiating financing terms for commercial real estate, prospective buyers assume that simply classifying the debt on a building as “Non-Recourse” debt will remove the personal liability of the owners.  As many potential investors have come to realize, banks and other lending institutions are becoming increasingly savvy in the wording of their lending documents with the use of “Carve Out” clauses.  Carve out clauses attempt to protect that lending institutions rights, as well as...

Looking for a low-cost construction financing option? The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 created a new category of bonds - Recovery Zone Bonds (RZB). These bonds are intended to stimulate economic recovery in designated “recovery zones”. There are two categories of RZBs – Recovery Economic Development Bonds ($10 billion allocated) and Recovery Zone Facility Bonds ($15 billion allocated).

Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds – These are governmental bonds to be used for...

For many contractors, small tools, repairs and maintenance can become significant expenses associated with running the business.  Furthermore, many contractors lack the ability to accurately track and account for all of their physical assets and tools.

We have seen a number of our clients address this need by implementing a tracking system that manages fixed assets and inventory.

One such option is Jobsite Resources (http://www.yourjobsiteresources.com/), a company out of Westerville, OH, which...