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- Idea Of The Day - Help Landlords Print Money with a Button (IRS Approved)
Idea Of The Day - Help Landlords Print Money with a Button (IRS Approved)
Needs To Exist
August 07, 2025
GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering you a startup idea that’ll save landlords millions in missed tax write-offs.
NTE Pro – $99/year lets you raid our vault of 4,829+ startup ideas. New ones land daily.
Big ideas die in your notes app.
NTE Zero to One gives you the tools, prompts, and push to actually build one.
Check out all the past newsletters here
Here’s what we’ve got for you today.
Daily Idea - Landlord Tax Hack
Shark Tank w/ Accountants
Want to turn depreciation into dollars? Let NTE Zero to One helps you launch it.
Inspired by @sweatystartup
Before we even get to today’s idea…
I already built it.
15 minutes. Lovable + Supabase + GPT. No Stripe. Probably inaccurate. Definitely live.
I’m not running with it but if you want to, hit reply and let’s talk.
👉 Try the live prototype here
The One Liner
Turbocharge depreciation. Keep more cash. No accountant required.
The 140 character tweet (or X) version
Most small landlords miss out on 6-figure tax breaks. This AI tool automates cost segregation so you keep more, pay less.
The Longer Story Version
The Problem
If you own a rental property, you’re probably missing out on tens of thousands in tax savings.
Why?
Because of this magical accounting trick called cost segregation, a strategy that lets you front-load depreciation on your property to slash your taxable income.
Big real estate investors do this all the time.
They have teams of CPAs, engineers, and lawyers making sure every sidewalk, fridge, and light fixture gets written off at max speed.
But if you're a small investor, duplex owner, Airbnb host, house-hacker, you’re left out.
It’s too expensive. Too complicated. And most accountants won’t even mention it.
So you keep overpaying. Year after year.
The Solution
Let’s fix that.
This tool makes cost segregation stupid simple and affordable for the other 99% of landlords.
Here’s how it works:
You enter your property address.
The system pulls public records, photos, comps, and asset types.
AI breaks down your property into components and generates a cost segregation report in plain English.
You or your CPA file it. Boom. You just unlocked $50K+ in depreciation.
Built for humans, not just tax pros.
How We’d Build It
🛠 Stage 1: MVP (Fast, Scrappy, Functional)
Use Estated API to pull property data
Use GPT-4 + Claude 3 Opus to generate a narrative cost seg report
Create a Notion-style builder or PDF generator with Placid.app or Documint
Add a Zapier backend for flow control
Ship in 2 weeks. Charge $199 flat per report.
🚀 Stage 2: Scaling (Automated, Self-Serve, CPA-Friendly)
Launch with a category: short-term rentals. Own Airbnb Twitter.
💎 Stage 3: Pro Mode (Moats + Retention)
Sell annual bundles. Expand to all landlord tax automation.
Why It Needs to Exist
Because Uncle Sam won’t remind you to claim your money.
And your CPA’s too busy to help unless you’re buying strip malls.
This tool democratizes a powerful tax hack.
Turns small investors into smart investors.
More cash. Less tax. All automated.
It’s not perfect , but it’s proof.
You could ship this idea today, make it better, and charge for it tomorrow.
Want to run with it? Reply here.
Your boss will think you’re a genius
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You didn’t set out to build anything
You were just trying to explain why that app sucked.
Why it takes 6 clicks to do 1 thing.
Why no one’s fixed it.
And then someone said:
“Why don’t you build it?”
You shrugged.
“I’m not a founder.”
But that little voice in your head said:
“Maybe you are.”
That’s the moment NTE Zero to One is built for.
Not the day you go full-time.
Not when you’ve got investors or cofounders.
But the moment when you say, “Screw it, I’ll just build it myself.”
Like this prototype of today’s idea in under 15 minutes. It’s live, and it kinda sick.
👉 See the MVP here
We give you the plan, the push, and the path to go from idea → something real.
$49. No fluff. No pitch deck. Just traction.
Imagine walking into Shark Tank.
But instead of Mark Cuban, it’s… a retired IRS agent, a burnt-out CPA, and a 24-year-old TikTok tax queen.
You’re pitching a tool that helps small landlords save tens of thousands using a strategy called cost segregation, basically, accelerated depreciation for every toilet, cabinet, and ceiling fan in your rental.
Let’s roll tape.
🧓 Sharon (Retired IRS Agent):
“I spent 30 years auditing billionaires. You’re telling me Airbnb Bro can now write off his patio furniture?”
👨💼 Greg (Burnt-out CPA):
“Back in my day, we did this with spreadsheets, duct tape, and prayer.”
💅 Tina (TikTok Tax Influencer):
“Okay but is this legal-legal? Or ✨real estate loophole✨ legal?”
The Pitch:
This founder built a tool where:
You input your property address
The system pulls public records + photos
AI breaks it into components (think: carpets, appliances, landscaping)
You get a clean, IRS-compliant cost seg report
Boom: Thousands in tax savings, no $10K consultant required
👀 Why this works:
Most small landlords (duplex owners, Airbnb hosts, etc.) have never heard of cost segregation.
But the big dogs use it all the time.
This tool brings Wall Street tax strategy to your uncle with two rentals in Ohio.
$199 flat. Fully automated. Legally legit.
🎭 Back to the Sharks…
Sharon: “I don’t trust software that says ‘toilet’ and ‘write-off’ in the same sentence.”
Greg: mutters “He’s gonna put me out of business…”
Tina: “If it had a button that said ‘Save $6,000’ — I’d post it tomorrow.”
🚀 Your Turn:
There’s a real business here.
Tax tools aren’t sexy until they save someone five figures.
👉 Build the tool. Make it fun. Make it viral. And yes... write off the damn toilet.
Startup Roulette: Spin, Build, Repeat 🎰
Every morning, thousands of people spin the NTE idea wheel.
Sometimes you hit gold.
Sometimes you hit chaos.
Sometimes… you hit a startup so weird it just might work.
Here’s today’s pull from the vault:
🧼 Idea #1 — Digital Declutter for Seniors
Granny has 19,832 unread emails and gets 6 texts a day from “RayBan Sale Bot.”
This in-person service helps older adults clean up their digital lives, unsubscribing, blocking spam, organizing their inbox.
It’s Geek Squad meets Marie Kondo for boomers.
🧢 Idea #2 — Fashion Concierge for Tech Bros
You make $300K and still wear that hoodie from the 2017 hackathon?
This subscription styling service helps engineers stop dressing like failed startups.
One quick profile → clothes that fit, flex, and don’t get you roasted at dinner.
🧠 Idea #3 — Semantic File System That Actually Understands You
You: “Where’s that PDF from the investor I met at Soho House in April?”
Your computer: “No clue, bro.”
This tool replaces folders with AI-powered memory.
Ask anything, and it finds the file — no more final_final_reallyfinal_v4.pdf chaos.
There are 4,829+ more ideas like these in the NTE Pro vault.
Some are small. Some are moonshots. All are up for grabs.
$99/year gets you unlimited spins.
Build one before someone else does.
One More Meme
