Charting and Trending Expenses.

[Justin R.]

I wanted to share something I created, and would also like to get feedback. Like many people do, I invest in several geographical markets, but wanted a way to visualize the expense breakdown of exactly where my money goes. I wanted to then take this visual product and compare/contrast all of my real estate markets. The main 2 things I wanted categorized were......

Pie Chart 1. A breakdown of where all my money is going, including my cut (before debt service.) This is important for me to see how much money is going to me, based upon a percentage, from each region. I don't include Capex because that is something that technically increases value of the property and typically done with my approval. I don't include interest/debt payments because I want an even playing field within all regions to compare, similar to why we don't use debt service for a cap rate.

- I  can also compare and contrast each region by expense category. Great to see what the property management cost ACTUALLY is after all fees. 

- Great for trending and keeping an eye on uncontrolled levels of repair/maintenance

- Future analyses

- Prioritize where to start cutting expenses or negotiating

Pie Chart 2. All expenses represented as a percentage. Neat to see them broken down, but offers less relativity because if all expenses are high in that region, it really mutes visual concept.

Im not super keen on the tables with the black labeled Revenue and NOI on the left, but I needed to add this both for my own reference and as a place to insert figures from my P and L.

The Revenue/Expense ratio is also neat to look at, and makes you second guess the 50 percent rule of thumb. This location happens to be in the midwest, with 100 year old homes so it was expected to be higher than my areas of higher rents, and newer homes.

Please use or modify this template as you see fit. If you can offer any suggestions on how I can make mine better, or word a category correctly, please do. Mine is far from perfect and I am not an accounting, or tech person by any means. If anyone would like me to add this to the template section of BP let me know and Ill gladly do so.