FreemanBarraza

A boutique practice

Boutique by design. Specialized by choice.

Who we serve in real estate

  • Sponsors, syndicators, and operators of multi-investor partnerships
  • Developers and owners of commercial, industrial, and land holdings
  • Established individual investors building multi-asset portfolios
  • Real estate families planning succession and estate transfer
  • Hospitality owners and operators
  • Foreign investors in US property, and US owners of property abroad

Large firms run real estate clients through a production line: returns in, K-1s out, and a different associate every year. We built the opposite: investors, sponsors, and families get partner-level attention on every acquisition, exchange, and exit.

Our real estate practice is led by Eric Freeman, CPA, MAcc, who previously led the real estate practice at a top-200 national CPA firm and has invested in real estate himself since 2012, from a single-family home to multifamily, office, industrial, and land.

Meet Eric Freeman →

Real Estate Services

From formation to exit, and beyond.

Partnership & Entity Taxation

Most serious real estate is owned through partnerships and LLCs, and partnership tax is where the most money is quietly won or lost. Capital accounts, allocations, waterfalls, basis, and debt allocations determine who pays tax on what, and when. We get them right from the operating agreement forward.

Review Your Partnership Structure
  • Partnership and multi-member LLC returns (Form 1065) and investor K-1s
  • Operating agreement tax review: allocations, distributions, and waterfalls
  • Capital account, basis, and at-risk tracking
  • Section 754 elections and basis adjustments on transfers
  • Entity selection and holding structures for new acquisitions

Complex Real Estate Transactions

The tax result of a real estate deal is decided before closing. Whether you are exchanging into a larger property, merging two partnerships, buying out a partner, or forming a new fund, the structure determines whether gain is deferred, recognized, or shifted to the wrong person.

Talk Before You Close
  • Like-kind exchanges (Section 1031), including reverse and improvement exchanges
  • Partnership mergers, divisions, and consolidations
  • Partner buy-outs, redemptions, and drop-and-swap planning
  • Transaction formation: contributions, promotes, and sponsor economics
  • Pre-closing tax modeling for acquisitions and dispositions

Cost Segregation & Depreciation Strategy

A cost segregation study reclassifies parts of a building into shorter-lived property, accelerating depreciation into the early years of ownership. Paired with bonus depreciation, whose rules change with each new round of legislation, it can transform a property's after-tax return. Done carelessly, it creates recapture surprises on exit. We model both ends.

Ask If Cost Segregation Fits
  • Cost segregation feasibility analysis and study coordination
  • Bonus depreciation and Section 179 planning
  • Look-back studies and accounting method changes (Form 3115) for properties already owned
  • Depreciation recapture and exit modeling
  • Repair-versus-capitalization and tangible property regulations

Real Estate Professional Status & Material Participation

Depreciation only shelters other income if the passive activity rules allow it. Qualifying as a real estate professional and materially participating in your rentals can unlock losses that would otherwise be suspended for years. It is also one of the most audited positions in the code. We help you qualify correctly and document it defensibly.

Evaluate Your Status
  • Real estate professional (REPS) qualification analysis
  • Material participation tests and grouping elections
  • Short-term rental strategy and documentation
  • Suspended passive loss planning and release on disposition
  • Contemporaneous time-log and audit-defense documentation

Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds

Opportunity zone investments can defer and, held long enough, eliminate tax on appreciation, but only if the fund, the business, and the timeline all meet strict requirements. We advise investors and fund sponsors on formation, compliance testing, and exit.

Discuss Opportunity Zones
  • Qualified Opportunity Fund formation and self-certification
  • Investor gain deferral planning and timing
  • Ongoing asset tests and substantial improvement compliance
  • Long-term hold and exit planning

Cross-Border Real Estate

Here our real estate and international practices work as one team. Foreign buyers of US property face FIRPTA withholding and US estate tax exposure. US owners of property in Mexico and abroad face reporting and inheritance rules few real estate CPAs know. Partnerships with foreign partners trigger withholding most sponsors overlook. We structure for both tax systems at once.

See International & Cross-Border Tax
  • Inbound structuring for foreign investors in US real estate
  • FIRPTA planning, withholding certificates, and exit strategy
  • Foreign partners in US partnerships: withholding and reporting
  • US owners of foreign property: reporting, fideicomisos, and rental income

Portfolio Accounting, Reporting & Succession

A growing portfolio needs books that tell you which properties are performing, and a plan for how they pass to the next generation. Our family office practice provides property-level and consolidated reporting, and our estate planning work coordinates step-up, gifting, and entity strategies with your attorney.

See Outsourced Accounting
  • Property-level bookkeeping and consolidated portfolio reporting
  • Investor reporting support for sponsors
  • Estate and gift planning for real estate families
  • Family limited partnerships and holding company succession structures

Asset classes

We advise on the property types we own.

Practical experience across the asset classes our clients invest in, because the tax answer often depends on how the property actually operates.

  • Single-Family
  • Multifamily
  • Office
  • Industrial
  • Land
  • Hospitality
  • Short-Term Rentals
  • Mixed-Use

Learn with Eric

Real estate tax education, in plain English.

Eric's mission is simple: taxes are one of the largest lifetime expenses most people pay, and education is how you reduce it. Start here.

Book

Tax Strategies for Everyone

How to Slash Your Taxes and Build Wealth is a practical guide for employees, entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, and retirees.

Learn about the book
YouTube

Eric Freeman CPA

Tax strategies, new tax laws, and wealth building, explained for investors and business owners who want to keep more of what they earn.

Watch on YouTube
Free Miniguides

Tax Deets newsletter

Miniguides on cost segregation, bonus depreciation nuances, qualifying as a real estate professional, and how new tax legislation affects investors.

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Before your next acquisition

Taxes don't have to be your largest expense.

Bring us the deal, the partnership agreement, or the portfolio. In 30 minutes we'll tell you where the tax value is hiding.

Schedule a Consultation →