All Forum Posts by: Bonnie Low

Quote from @Justin R.:

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

I switched from QBO to Baselane a year or so ago. We were paying a bookkeeper $450/month, plus the $90 QB subscription to do our books but I felt like we were still having to tell her how to categorize everything so it just didn't feel like we were getting our money's worth. My portfolio is not that large and it irked me to pay a bookkeeper so much and still have to do a lot of the work. To me, QB felt like overkill and I found it difficult to use since I don't have an accounting or bookkeeping background. Baselane is much easier to use and has so many other features I like, too. For me, the reports available in Baselane are ideal, but I'm also not trying to run a different business through it like it sounds like you may be doing. I do know that I was able to archive my QB data and still have access to it for up to a year after I canceled my subscription. I think they maybe charge you a reactivation fee if you decide you need to access that information, but I didn't need to so I can't recall for sure. Hope this helps.

 Yes @Bonnie Low this does help. Both Business' are real estate, so that doesn't really matter, just the fact I need to have double the QBO subscriptions. 

Everyone should have some "general expenses" I would think, that are not tied to a particular property. Such as Accounting fees, home office, business liability insurance, and similar. Does Baseline give you the option to track expenses without attaching it to a particular property?

How does your accountant pull info from baseline to do taxes, or track your cost bases/balance sheet?

@Alecia Loveless thanks for your thoughts. I don't think Im paying my bookeepeer an outrageous amount, although with economies of scale (I have one commercial insurance plan, commerical portfolio loan from a single bank, one bank account, etc) it probably doesn't take the Bookeeper 3x to do my books compared to yours. 

If I could move to a more simple software than QBO, it would save me several thousand a year, and the simplicity would be valuable as well. Best to you!

Hi, Justin. Yes, I have general expenses that are not attributable to a single property, like legal and accounting and home offices like you mentioned. However, my business structure is maybe a little different than yours. My Holding Company holds all my LLCs. I have an LLC for each state I do business in and each property is held inside the LLC for the appropriate state. So those general expenses get categorized to the holding company as the parent organization. To be honest, my CPA may apportion them to each LLC but I don't think he does. Now that you asked, I need to double check that. As for sharing information, I use the reports available inside Baselane to send my CPA whatever he needs. If he needed something beyond the standard business forms and Schedule E, I could give him limited access to my Baselane portal, just like my bookkeeper had limited access. You have the ability to grant permissions based on the user's security level, which you determine. My CPA had no problem using it. While QBO is probably more common, I've learned that they have had to become accustomed to a lot of different programs because their clients use so many different platforms. Again, this is just my personal experience.

20% is about average for a short term rental as far as management fees go. Some go as high as 25-30%. It does really eat into your revenue, but if you're convinced you can't manage it yourself from a distance, you will need either a PM or a co-host. Have you searched for co-hosts in your area? Your instinct to speak directly to the PM and not through your realtor is spot on. Never let the Realtor be a barrier. Is your Realtor an experienced STR host (more than likely, no). Do they know what questions to ask? What expectations do they have and do they align with yours? It's a huge investment for you - you definitely should have direct access to the PM. If the property was already listed on the MLS, I'd push back on the price relative to the comps. But if you're trying to get an exclusive deal, the reality is that you probably have less bargaining power because if they want $296.10/sq ft they know they can put it on the MLS and see if they get any bites. Income is difficult to predict not knowing the market. You can use a tool like AirDNA to get estimates of property performance in your specific market and with your typical size and configuration of home. You can do the same to estimate rents for a midterm rental by going to the Furnished Finder stats page for your city. If it's currently an STR they should be able to provide you with the p/l statement from prior years so you can see gross rents, operating expenses, average daily rates and occupancy levels. ACTUAL data is always best.

I switched from QBO to Baselane a year or so ago. We were paying a bookkeeper $450/month, plus the $90 QB subscription to do our books but I felt like we were still having to tell her how to categorize everything so it just didn't feel like we were getting our money's worth. My portfolio is not that large and it irked me to pay a bookkeeper so much and still have to do a lot of the work. To me, QB felt like overkill and I found it difficult to use since I don't have an accounting or bookkeeping background. Baselane is much easier to use and has so many other features I like, too. For me, the reports available in Baselane are ideal, but I'm also not trying to run a different business through it like it sounds like you may be doing. I do know that I was able to archive my QB data and still have access to it for up to a year after I canceled my subscription. I think they maybe charge you a reactivation fee if you decide you need to access that information, but I didn't need to so I can't recall for sure. Hope this helps.

Quote from @Kevin Brown:

Hi,

We own and manage two AirBnb's.  We have previously tracked all expenses manually in google sheets and produced financials statements manually, also in google sheets.  

Transcribing transactions from bank statements, posting transactions to the correct accounts, and then manually creating an income statement, statement of owner's equity and a balance sheet is a fairly time consuming process and I have not been able to keep up with the book keeping between my regular work responsibilities.

What accounting software do people recommend?  I would prefer something I can buy once - software subscriptions are a nuisance.

Something that automatically downloads transactions from my online banking portal and that can be used to easily categorize expenses for financial statements would be excellent.

Thanks,

Kevin

Hi, Kevin. I did use Quickbooks, but it was really cumbersome and expense (we paid a bookkeeper to manage it.) I switched to Baselane, which is a banking AND bookkeeping platform and it has been so much easier for me to manage myself. It's free to sign up for an account and the savings account has a very competitive interest rate. I find that it's almost a one stop shop in that I can use it for my business checking and savings accounts, bookkeeping, for rent collection, I can issue virtual credit card, I can create all the financial reports I need to run my real estate business and prepare for tax filing and through their partners I can vet my tenants, develop state-specific leases and more. It's really become my most go-to platform because I can do so many things through it. It's worth checking out.

Quote from @Brandon Croucier:

That’s a killer loan if they are actually offering that.

Seems extremely below market value as even primary mortgages are higher than this right now.

I would beware of a bait & switch on this.

 I had the exact same thoughts. Maybe he's talking about a private money lender??

Quote from @Bryan Maddex:

• CRM: What’s the best CRM for managing leads and clients?
  HighLevel - plenty of build outs for LOs or brokers. Can do almost anything you like!
• Loan Origination Systems (LOS): What works best for mortgage and private lending?
  Arive. I have yet to do any training on Arive and been using it for 6 months. So simple.
• Email & Marketing: How are you handling outreach, automation, and social media?
  HighLevel
• Accounting & Finance: What tools make bookkeeping and financial tracking seamless?
  WaveApps - cheaper than Quickbooks
• Hiring & Onboarding: Any platforms or strategies that have helped you scale your team?
  I do not take on new LOs, but I have had LOs go thru Xinnix training and found it helpful!
  
  I am curious to learn from others as well  :)

 I looked at GHL for my CRM but felt like it was full of features I'd probably never use and the cost was considerably more than what I ended up using: Monday.com. I'm curious if you feel like you're using 50% of the features in GHL, 75%, 80%+ or??? 

Quote from @Aaron Zimmerman:

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

My current CPA came via recommendation from another investor. What I'm realizing is that he's really more of a tax preparer and less of a tax strategist, which is really what I need. 

 @Bonnie Low - it's important to know what services you're paying for. If you're not sure, ask your CPA. A lot of times CPAs are so bogged down with compliance work that they can't even think about doing advisory. Not an excuse but just letting you know the way it is. 

The good news is that there are plenty of great CPAs out there including on these forums.

We did have a conversation with him, which is why we selected him in the first place. We were very clear that we were looking for strategies and why and it all sounded good in the initial interview. We even did a mid-year check in meeting in person but felt like he did not provide us any guidance. It was a very one-sided relationship. So even though you do your due diligence you sometimes don't get what you're looking for. Like many professional services, I have found you often have to go through several before you find the right one.

@Carrie Matuga I thought you might be interested in this thread.

You haven't said exactly what you would be buying it for but I would jump on it and here's why. Low or no down, seller financing and low or no interest with a balloon payment later is the holy grail (location, building condition, market also matter but it sounds like you have all that). You could trim your expenses by eliminating property management - you can absolutely do this yourself on a 6-unit, even as a newbie. I'd be surprised if the complex doesn't have individually metered units so you may be able to eliminate the utility expenses unless those are for common areas like walk ways, parking lot or laundry. Each tenant should be paying their own utilities. Even if you don't decide to keep it in the long run, it's an appreciating asset you can make money off of. If he doesn't need the cash now, you could also negotiate a split you're comfortable with to get him the return you and he feel he should have at the point you refi when the balloon payment comes due. 

Quote from @JD Martin:

Why is your tenant paying you by credit card? Yes, they can dispute the charge and then the CC company will have to open a dispute that you will have to answer to attempt to get your money. 

It is one reason most LLs will not accept CCs for rent payments. All a mid-term rental is someone staying not permanently but longer than on vacation. It's a short term lease. They should pay just like someone on a regular lease pays - cash or equivalent into your bank account. 

Many of the OTAs and lead gen sites, like Furnished Finder, are pushing credit card payments. 99.9% of the time I get a message from FF saying 'your tenant would prefer to pay by credit card so activate Stripe now!'  I'm sure they're getting something out of it and I've asked tenants if they indicated they wanted to pay by credit card just to see where this is coming from. Every single one of them has either said no, they didn't, or "I didn't know that was an option."  New landlords may think that's standard given that the booking and listing platforms are pushing it.