Financial arrangement for Real Estate investing

[Yichu Zhou]

Hi, everyone,

I am new to real estate investing and plan to start investing this year. I have been reading many books (and posts in this forum) and trying to build a system for investing. Before posting my questions, I would like to briefly introduce my current situation. I currently have two rental properties, but they are not "on purpose." I acquired them not for investing, but they ended up as investments due to some life changes. Anyway, these two are in different states and are handled by property management companies. 

Now, I have decided to be a real estate investor. To start with that, I have some financial arrangement questions:

1. One of the books I have read suggests that I should use a separate banking account to handle all the income and expenses for one rental property, even if I do not use an LLC. This makes the bookkeeping easier to handle. My two property management companies provide me with monthly statements listing all the income and expenses. I feel this is enough for bookkeeping. Currently, I am using my personal checking account to collect rentals. Are there potential issues using my personal checking accounts except for the bookkeeping?

2. Every year, my CPA prepares my tax returns. My property management company sends me the 1099MISC form, and I send it to my CPA. That's all I did. I feel this is not a best practice, but I'm not sure how to improve it. Can anyone give me some advice on organizing my system? I really appreciate it. 

Still learning things here. Any suggestion is appreciated! Thanks!