What is the best way to organize yourself?

Question

I fairly new to the real estate game, I have some properties and I doing ok for a start but I am having some problems organizing myself properly any advice how I can best organize, maybe some books? Any ways appreciate your responces.

Ned Carey · Answer

No answer was given to Tom McGiverons question about "what to organize"

1) Have clarity of your goals. Clarity leads to focus and productivity. Confusion leads to disorganization.

2) Have a  system to get things done. I highly recommend the book Getting things done by David Allen. He has a great system for keeping track of all you to dos. He also goes a little into filing and office setup.

3) To keep track of finances I use Quickbooks. There was a significant learning curve but it serves me well now. Also my accountant insisted on it. If you keep it up to date it is easy to generate reports on how your properties are performing.

4) I have several companies and a number of properties. I use a simple spreadsheet  to keep track of everything. One sheet keep track of my companies, Who is the resident agent, the official address, who are the owners and have taxes been filed.

Another page on that same file lists my properties down the left column, Sorted by company that owns them. Other columns list the tenant, rent amount, security deposit,  insurance information, is it registered with both the city and the state, Estimated annual NNN cash flow, etc. I use it as a one page snapshot of all the details that need to tracked.

Frank Adams · Answer

When I started out I just had one file folder per property and in it I kept a sheet of "accounting" paper which was laid out in the same format as the form for my income tax return. Over the years I replaced that form with a very simple sheet in "Excel", (I still have a file folder for each ppty and after entering any paid bill into the computer the paper copy goes into the folder. That keeps a running total throughout the year and makes it easy to do my taxes at end of year.

Excel is a very easy to use program. Note; I'm one of the least computer savvy guys around. I didn't even have a desktop until '96 and still don't have a laptop, or wireless internet, or high speed internet either.

At the end of the year I make a new folder for each property. Then I transfer "permanent" items into the new one; tax and insurance papers, paid bills for "capital" improvements etc. At the end of the next year I empty the previous year folder and start over again. There's no reason to keep a folder with old HD receipts etc. But receipts for capital expenditures have to be kept "forever".

Something else that I did when I got more than 3 properties was to make a "cheat" sheet that stays right on top of my desk. Across the top it lists the months, down the left side it lists each property with the following information: Tenant name(s), social security number (in my case they're buyers not tenants so I do need that for taxes), property address, contact phone numbers.

Going across the page I list the monthy principle, interest, taxes and insurance. One the far right side I have a single column which shows my "expected" net income for the year. Next to that I put the date their lease expires, now the date their loan is due.

When checks arrive I put a check mark in the appropriate column, if it's late I write in the date received. I can tell quickly if I need to call, and what their phone numbers are and what to call them when they answer.

All of my basics are right there for me, or my wife when I'm out of town. No digging through files for information that you tend to need fairly often. Set up in Excel I found I can get 10 properties per page, and I print it on heavy stock paper because it gets a bit dog-eared by the end of the year.

At the bottom of the last page I put in important phone numbers that I got tired of looking up; Electrician, A/C guys, utilities, Justice of Peace Office etc. Now I also have those things in my cell phone, which I didn't get until '97!.

all cash

Robert Macklyn · Answer

Basically a person gets organized with the proper time management. And there is no better way to have the time organized with the usage of tools that matters a lot. Like in my case the tool which I deploy for the time management is the cloud based hours tracking tool from Replicon. Its the hour that constitutes the day and the day that constitutes the month and so on. So making the bottom line strong enough gives you an impact to manage the things in the right aspect and so for the same reason I have prepared myself to keep track of my hours and ultimately that helps me to stay organized. I hope it will help you as well.

David Gaudet · Answer

Excel as mentioned above for spreadsheets.  Also our company uses Evernote which is a great tool for keeping basically everything you do organized.  If you have multiple computers (or an ipad, phones etc) it can sync everything so you always have access to your documents, records, invoices or whatever you have in there.  Its free too..always a bonus.

Mark B · Answer

Thanks for the help Ned.  As I mentioned, I need help with how to keep track of incoming rents and utilities payments.  I'm not sure I am ready to dive into Quickbooks at the moment, but your excel file sounds like an idea that could work for me.  Have you added that to the resource center by chance?
Thanks,
Mark

Mark B · Answer

I'm bumping this because I would really like to hear more ideas on how to manage multiple properties.  Specifically interested in how to keep track of incoming rents and utilities payments.
Thanks.

Tom McGiveron · Answer

all cash,

what about just using Excel to input all that information.

you use Excel to make the hard copy, but do you use it for automating your equations?  ie:

gross rent - taxes - insurance - expenses (attached to logged expenses for month) = net income - [debt service] =  monthly cash flow [tie this to annual reports]

maybe you use Excel this way, i just didn't catch that in your post.

do you still have the same cell phone from 97?!! lol

Tom McGiveron · Answer

what are you looking to organize?  your financials?  your desk?  general stuff?  like??

What is the best way to organize yourself?

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