Best Practices for STR/LLC Money Management

[Samantha Kuhl]

Good morning everyone!

First time poster and newbie real estate investor here. We currently have two single family STR in Michigan- we own one with my brother-in-law and his wife, and the other is owned by an LLC that we are 1/3 owners. I have a couple of questions as to what would be "best practice" for how we are running things. We are looking at purchasing 1-2 more properties in the next few months, and I want to make sure I'm doing everything right from the beginning.

I currently fully manage both rentals (bookings, customer relations, schedule cleaners, repairs, booking keeping, etc.) and the plan is for me to do so with any future properties.  HOWEVER- for the last two years, I've not technically gotten paid for doing it.  The profits at the end of the year are split equally between partners, even though the workload is not split equally.  Everyone has agreed to changed that for 2022, so I'll be getting a % of each booking and anyone from our group that has business mileage can submit it for reimbursement on a monthly basis.  So my first question is this: 

I'm using QB Self-Employed for our personal finances, would it be a good idea to simply invoice each business for my time that month? That way I have the documentation for each business of what those checks to myself were written for?

Also- would you have a best idea for documenting mileage? I currently use an app, so I'm thinking I could just submit a report or screenshot from the app of the documented miles driven. Thoughts?

Also- there are no tax benefits to creating an LLC for myself for property management, right? I can still write off business expenses and I'll still pay the same income tax on that money whether it's going right into our personal account or into an LLC. The more I'm reading about technically being a property manager is that I am supposed to have a property manager license, which I can't get without a real estate license.

The second part:  Since we are actively looking for new properties to expand our business ventures, if the LLC purchases a new rental, should I have a separate bank account for each house? Or can they be combined? Basically, if we buy a new house with the same combo of investors, should we keep the money separate or combine them?


 Thank you so much for any insight, advice or help!