Just a couple months ago Patrick and I made the last minute decision to move to Puerto Rico. We've rented a giant house to live and work in and we will be sharing the process of turning this empty home into the new Fstoppers Studio.
You probably have a lot of questions about why we moved to Puerto Rico and what it's like actually living here. Tomorrow we will release a new video that should answer everyone's questions but in this video we wanted to give everyone an idea of what our new "office" looked like before we started the renovation. For the next few months we will be building sets, furnishing the house, networking every room, building new PCs, and reviewing a massive amount of new gear. Although the house is quite large, our shooting spaces are not, and we will be sharing how we deal production issues like lighting in tight rooms with low ceilings and managing the crazy echo in a concrete structure.
If you've ever considered building a photo or video studio in your house, you're going to love the content that we produce over the next few months. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay tuned for all of our new content.
YES!! Congratulations guys!
I’m putting together a makeshift studio to bide my time until I can get my garage fixed up and cleared out to turn *that* into the real studio. I eagerly await all the articles. :)
Wow. Great property with loads of potential, but those views... will you ever get any work done?
we're trying ;)
that is not a "giant house"!! It is a castle!!! Look forward to watch your progress. Have fun!!
Nice!
"For the next few months we will be building sets, furnishing the house, networking every room, building new PCs..."
After 4 months a new video: Piña Colada in the beach livestream
Reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UUngx-_LHY
https://giphy.com/embed/g9582DNuQppxC
I lived on the west coast of Florida for 7 years and then spent a little over 20 years in New Orleans. The one hitch in all that is hurricane season. I hope you've found a SOLID piece of property and plan to have very good insurance. You're in the middle of a very busy hurricane track there.
as a PR local, this is very sound advice.. Invest in a generator, insure everything
We talk about this in our latest youtube video. Hurricanes this far south are actually fairly rare. Most tropical storms turn into hurricanes much closer to Florida before going into the gulf or up the east coast. Florida and SC get hit WAY more with strong hurricanes than Puerto Rico does so I believe we are actually moving to a safer area. The house we are renting also has a full generator and has already withstood Maria which hit at or near a cat 5 (and the eye hit this house directly).
House looks nice. But does it have two card slots?
It has 5!
Hahahahahaha
moving to PR to do wedding photography there? does the public there have money to pay thousands of dollars for photographers? theres got to be some hardships to come in as a non native person shooting weddings there,
I know in my country that any foreigner coming in to do weddings will not succeed, no matter how high a level.
just curious and thinking out loud.
PR local here... There's plenty of high paying destination weddings here in PR.. if you want to break into the scene, you just have to meet the right people, wedding coordinators, and hotel personnel that deal with destination weddings.. that sort of stuff.
Unless I'm mistaken, Lee and Patrick haven't photographed a wedding in quite a few years. Fstoppers (specifically, making the tutorials) is their business.
I could be wrong, but I thought that's what they said a long time ago.
As much as I frequent this page.. I have no idea what kind of business Lee and Patrick run/have/do (I mainly read articles that interest me, or reviews.. I've never bought or seen one of their tutorials), I was merely replying to OP's question about money and the wedding industry in PR. If making tutorials is their business.. I'm really curious to know why move to PR.. heck, I want to move out of PR.. then again, I know PR has quite a few legal tax loopholes... all of which dont apply to my tax bracket
I was replying to the OP, as well.
They just put an hour-ish video on their YouTube channel about the move. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m guessing they go into the why in that video.
We haven't shot weddings the last 2-3 years now but we still do photography. We won't be taking any jobs away from anyone working here because we are primarily focusing on Fstoppers at this point. That being said, we do know some photographers who are living in PR who fly back to the states for bigger commercial jobs and they don't have an issue with living out here. You just have an extra connection getting to and from your final destination.
To clarify, PR is part of the U.S.;not a different country.
maybe on map. but its a COMPLETELY different world culture and people and economics. there isnt a gram of america in there in their culture.
I'd invest in a couple of power generators and stock up on fuel.
Congrats, but from you've gone from the hurricane suburbs to the red light district. 🤔
Actually it's the opposite. The Southeast of the US gets hit with way more hurricanes than PR. Most storms don't even get up to Cat 2 winds until after they have passed these southern islands.
WOW! welcome to the caribbean!! we´ll be neighbors!!! God bless!!!
Y'all have an extra pull-out couch in there? 😉
Of course! Did I hear your wife is from here?
Yeah she's Puerto Rican and we love the island. We also love warm and paying less taxes so we've also been eyeing property there and are extremely interested to follow your move...
As I understand it, PR's taxation can be hugely advantageous. Peter Schiff talks a lot about it in an interview with Joe Rogan.
It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the great tax advantages offered by PR, would it? :-)
The property should have been bought by fstoppers inc. and its mortgage fully deductible. In turn, the two bedrooms are rented to you & Patrick for personal use at a discounted rental rate. Let’s be honest, majority of the square footage is for business purposes, but I’m sure you already know that. Utilities, insurance, maintenance, etc. as related to business use are all deductible. A good accountant is king, boys. That chair you bought, that’s your reception area. I’d want to see a receipt and a deduction under furniture & fixtures.
Best of luck! I’m vacationing in San Juan next month with the family. Beautiful country!
When you move to PR, you don't have much in the form of write offs anymore so the idea of write offs and business deductions are actually all gone. Your thoughts def apply to business in the states though.
Nevermind the write offs, if you become a PR resident and live there for 183 days a year or more, you can legally avoid US Federal and State income taxes. Just read: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/07/04/hate-taxes-move-to-ta...
Yep, that article might have been the initial article that put PR on our radar. Watch our last youtube video for more info on it.
Once you are down here though, you can't write off anything so it's a completely different way of running a business. Technically you can write off stuff but it doesn't amount to much. The idea of deducting your house and office space doesn't work the same way it does in the US.
I don't like what I'm hearing Patrick. From a brief read, it looks like anything business-related is deductible: http://taxsummaries.pwc.com/ID/Puerto-Rico-Corporate-Deductions
But hey, I trust you have a good accountant.
Right?
I'm still trying to wrap my head around it because it is complicated but I think it works like this. When you run a business in the US as an S Corp, all your income is taxed as you the individual. Therefore if you have money that is taxed at 35%, and you buy something that is a business expense, you can deduct that expense from your income which in essence is taking away money that is taxed at 35%. If you were to deduct income that was taxed only at 10% then you'd only be saving 10%. That's how deductions work. The more money you make, the bigger the impact the deduction will be because you are pulling money off the top most tax bracket.
With Act 20, a good portion of your money is being taxed at 4% (really 5% if we are being picky). So yes you can still make deductions, but they are only helping you save 4-5% max.
I might be mistaken, but the link you sent might have to do with residence who are not doing Act 20. With Act 20 you are literally signing a contract with the local government and are treated differently from a tax stand point. I'll def ask around to make sure my understanding is correct but in a nutshell, you do get deductions but they aren't worth as much as they are in the US because you aren't deducting from a source that is highly taxed to begin with.
The rent is prob about the same as a 2 Br in Los Angeles
can confirm
Great house! Maybe challenge for new episode of you and Mike in architecture photo after house is finished?! 😜
Congrats! Tip for reducing echo in rooms: cover/round your inside(!) corners with something like drywall with rockwool inside to make the angle from one wall to the other (or the wall to the ceiling) not 90 degrees but 2 times 135 degrees. Softening the floor or walls will not do enough to stop the echo. The corners in the room are your echo spots.
Looking forward to new tutorials from your new hangout! Grts Jeanine from Face Focus in the Netherlands
congrats!
I feel like we're about to witness a Photographers version of HBO's Entourage!!!
Congrats guys, now you’re gonna have to figure out decent internet and reliable power. It’s a beautiful place but there are some caveats that you will need to address quickly. Good luck on the new endeavors!
Already taken care of. Watch our latest youtube video. Internet here is actually WAY faster and cheaper than it was in SC (200mbps down and 25 mbps up for around $70) and AT&T is much much faster than any US city I've been to the last 5 years. As for power, there are short hiccups once a week or so but our house has a full generator so that shouldn't be an issue.
i just loved that the first question was about you being gay, you could have just given milak his shoutout for the question
Milak has a kid and is married...it's you I'm worried about.
how Emma hasnt murdered him yet is beyond me
Lee - acoustic treating, not sound proofing... There's a pretty big difference :)
you guys may want to change....Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com
Congrats on the move!