accounting for newbie with owner occupied multifamily

[Michael Biener]

Hi all, i have been lurking around bigger pockets for the last 6 months or so. This site is very helpful, especially for wishful newbies like myself. I finally closed on my first investment property a few weeks ago. It is a 3 family property i purchased using a VA loan. I will be living in one unit and renting the other two.

I have already created a new checking account for the income/expenses of the rental property. Additionally there is separate savings account for tenants security deposits (required in NH).

The two incoming rents each month are about 90% of the mortgage and will be deposited into the rental checking account.  Additionally, i plan to "pay" rent for my unit to myself to cover the rest of the mortgage and provide for maintenance/repair funds.

This leads me to my question, should i deposit my "rent" into the rental property account and then pay the mortgage from that account? or should i transfer the monthly tenant rents from the renal property account to my personal account and pay the mortgage from my personal account?

If it was entirely a rental property obviously everything would be directly into and out of the rental account, but where i will be living there i don't know the best way to do it for accounting/tax purposes?

I appreciate any advice.

Thanks