About Ted Lanzaro
Throughout his career, Ted has worked with thousands of investors and entrepreneurs, giving him a front-row view of the mistakes that quietly cost people money. Again and again, he has seen investors wait until tax season to think about tax, treat their CPA as someone who simply reports what has already happened, or make major buying, ownership, and exit decisions without considering the tax implications until the opportunity to plan has passed. His philosophy is simple: the most valuable tax decisions are usually made long before a return is filed.
As the author of *Year-Round Tax Planning for Real Estate Investors*, Ted is passionate about changing the way investors think about tax strategy. Rather than treating tax as an annual compliance exercise, he shows how it can become part of the wider decision-making process around cash flow, entity structure, acquisitions, short-term rentals, syndications, holding strategies, business growth, and eventual exits.
What makes Ted’s perspective particularly practical is that he understands real estate from both sides of the table. He knows the technical rules as a CPA, but he also understands the pressures, trade-offs, and opportunities investors face because he is an investor himself. This allows him to translate complex tax concepts into clear conversations about protecting income, building wealth, improving financial visibility, and avoiding preventable mistakes.
Ted is now using the release of the updated edition of his book as the foundation for a broader mission to educate real estate investors and give them better tools for managing the financial side of their businesses. Through podcasts, conferences, webinars, and educational initiatives, he challenges investors to stop asking what they can do at tax time and start asking what they should be doing throughout the year.
As a podcast guest, Ted brings more than three decades of pattern recognition, real-world examples, and straight-talking insight into real estate taxation, wealth building, proactive financial planning, and the decisions that can ultimately determine how much of an investor’s success they actually get to keep.
Key topics
Real estate CPAs must understand how investors actually operate
Tax and accounting professionals serving real estate clients face a practical problem: technically correct advice can still miss the way investors make decisions in the field. The misconception is that knowing the rules is enough, when investors also need guidance tied to how they acquire, manage, hold, and scale real estate businesses. As both a CPA and real estate investor, Ted brings the lived tension between the tax code and the investing reality that advisors have to bridge for their clients.
Real estate investors lose tax leverage before filing season
Real estate investors often discover their tax bill after the decisions that shaped it have already been made. The common assumption is that tax savings happen at filing time, but the bigger leverage comes from how investors buy, operate, hold, and grow their properties throughout the year. This conversation helps listeners see tax planning as part of the investing process, not a cleanup job after the year is over.
The same preventable real estate tax mistakes keep repeating
Real estate investors are under pressure to move fast, but speed can make them repeat costly tax patterns that experienced advisors see every year. After 35 years working with thousands of investors and real estate business owners, the recurring problems are familiar: waiting too long to plan, separating tax from business decisions, and only asking for help when filing is due. This episode gives hosts a concrete way to unpack the mistakes investors do not realize are building into their portfolio decisions.
View all topics →
Key topics
Real estate CPAs must understand how investors actually operate
Tax and accounting professionals serving real estate clients face a practical problem: technically correct advice can still miss the way investors make decisions in the field. The misconception is that knowing the rules is enough, when investors also need guidance tied to how they acquire, manage, hold, and scale real estate businesses. As both a CPA and real estate investor, Ted brings the lived tension between the tax code and the investing reality that advisors have to bridge for their clients.
Real estate investors lose tax leverage before filing season
Real estate investors often discover their tax bill after the decisions that shaped it have already been made. The common assumption is that tax savings happen at filing time, but the bigger leverage comes from how investors buy, operate, hold, and grow their properties throughout the year. This conversation helps listeners see tax planning as part of the investing process, not a cleanup job after the year is over.
The same preventable real estate tax mistakes keep repeating
Real estate investors are under pressure to move fast, but speed can make them repeat costly tax patterns that experienced advisors see every year. After 35 years working with thousands of investors and real estate business owners, the recurring problems are familiar: waiting too long to plan, separating tax from business decisions, and only asking for help when filing is due. This episode gives hosts a concrete way to unpack the mistakes investors do not realize are building into their portfolio decisions.
View all topics →