Self-Managing, using Quickbooks...Questions

[Dan Gallegos]

Hi All,

I'm looking for an easier way to manage my properties and books. I'm spending too much time with only 5 units. I’m planning to acquire more properties, and I want something that I can scale.

I currently have 5 units that I self-manage.

Unit 1: SFR, 100% owned by me - not held in an LLC

Unit 2-4: Triplex, owned 50/50 by me and a partner - not held in an LLC

Unit 5: Commercial building, 100% owned by me - is held in an LLC

I Currently use separate bank accounts, and QuickBooks files for each property. I collect rent by having the tenants mail checks to my P.O. Box.

I use Quicken to manage/view my personal accounts, but I’m having problems inputting the equity of each property/business into my net worth. any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Dan Gallegos

[Jason Hartley]

Hey Dan,  pretty much any property management specific app is going to be geared more for collecting rents from your tenants than doing corporate accounting.  They are AR programs, all of them.  Quickbooks is what you should use for corporate accounting, nothing (buildium, rentec, etc) is going to compare to Quickbooks for full bookkeeping.  What you'll get from Rentec (that's what I use too) is a specific accounting process to keep track of property expenses and rental income.  You then take those numbers out monthly or annually and enter them into Quickbooks once (maybe 10 mins of work).  Then you get the best of both worlds and your accountant is happy you are using QB too.

Where something like Rentec really excels is giving you automation in letting your tenants go online and make payments, or report maintenance via the tenant portal.  These are things QB will never do.