What Paperwork Should I Be Keeping Record Of?

[Charles Evans]

I'm a new house hacker here. What paperwork should I keep a paper trail of to make things like taxes and other situations better/easier for myself? Like should I have a folder on my laptop for the tenant and keep a copy of each payment I receive from them? What are some other things I should retain to make the landlord experience easier? Thank you. 

[Ryan Kelly]

Here's a list of things to track:

- Formal lease application

- Formal signed and executed lease specific to your state

- Payment history (I recommend using online rent collection like Apartments.com, RentRedi, etc)

- Maintenance requests and receipts

- Accounting for all rental-related expenses (repairs, utilities, etc)

The more you treat it like a business, the more helpful you are to your CPA come tax time.