All Forum Posts by: Bonnie Low

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.

Quote from @Christi Wolverton:

First time in 3 years of mid-term renting that I had a credit card denied two months after client moved in.  She notified me yesterday her contract was canceled and asked about terminating the lease.  Little did I know but she had already declined her payment.  Has anyone had experience with this - in other words - can she simply decline the charge without the credit card company reaching out for investigation into the matter?

I haven't had this happen and I'm sorry that it happened to you. But my understanding is that yes, she can decline or retract by simply notifying her credit card issuer that the charge is invalid. At a minimum, she can open a dispute and if they haven't already processed the charge it will hold it up while it's investigated. 

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. 

Quote from @Jerod Meagher:

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

Hi, Lina! I'm glad you reached out for help. The community here on BP is great about supporting each other. I'd like to invite you to participate in a group I host called THE MTR Connect. We meet (virtually) every Friday from noon - 1:30pm (EST). This group is an incredible collection of midterm rental hosts who support one another by offering advice and suggestions, being a sounding board for each other, offering mentorship and collaboration opportunities and share our respective networks. I think you'd find it very helpful in your situation. If you're interested, please send me a message and I'll get you signed up.

Best of luck to you!

 Hi Bonnie!  One of the reasons I joined BP this month is to participate in a weekly connect just like this, as I know how powerful they can be.  Would love any additional info and the chance to check it out!  Sent DM.  Cheers

 I'd be happy to add you, Jerod. Just send me your email and phone. 

Following

Hey, Matt - thanks for creating this discussion. I'm following as I'm very interested in this as well.

Quote from @Lina Truong:

Thanks for reaching out. I sent you an email😊

 You're very welcome and I've added you to THE MTR Connect. 

Hi, Anastasia. You're on the right track to reach out for help here and also to look to your area for potential partnerships. I'd also like to invite you to join THE MTR Connect, a group I host that meets virtually every Friday from noon - 1:30pm EST. This is a group of MTR investors who have small to medium portfolios, but we welcome new investors who are just starting out as well. It is an incredibly supportive group, eager to share and to provide advice to anyone getting started. We're often helping each other problem solve our listings or helping with specific situations that are occurring at our properties. We share best management practices, systems & tools, and our networks. We have participants from all over the US so I'm sure you'd find someone near you. If you're interested in an invite just send me a message and I'll get you signed up. Good luck!

Hi, Lina! I'm glad you reached out for help. The community here on BP is great about supporting each other. I'd like to invite you to participate in a group I host called THE MTR Connect. We meet (virtually) every Friday from noon - 1:30pm (EST). This group is an incredible collection of midterm rental hosts who support one another by offering advice and suggestions, being a sounding board for each other, offering mentorship and collaboration opportunities and share our respective networks. I think you'd find it very helpful in your situation. If you're interested, please send me a message and I'll get you signed up.

Best of luck to you!

Quote from @Joshua Thompson:

If it helps, I asked many clients this same thing and learned the clients who spend time each month updating books and records are the ones who spend less than 30 minutes preparing everything for us. 

The ones using software are hit or miss if it takes less than 2 hours or DAYS! With software, it's only as powerful as its user so some clients overcomplicate things and spend most of their time trying to "fix Quickbooks".

The most successful and quick clients keep it simple or keep it to their comprehensive level.

 I definitely agree with this statement. In my experience, you either put the hours in up front or at the end, but either way you (or someone on your team) has to do it. I think I've done my bookkeeping almost every way you can - from not at all -> keeping receipts in a shoebox and handing over the entire shoebox to my CPA -> running 10-key tapes on all the receipts for each category and handing those tapes to my CPA -> DIY Quickbooks -> paying a bookkeeper to manage everything in Quickbooks -> to now doing it myself using Baselane. My current solution of using Baselane is by far the most cost effective and easiest, but it still requires that I spend time bookkeeping. And you know what? I've come to believe that's not a bad thing. It forces me to get real familiar with my business and how my properties are performing. I keep saying it's making me a better investor and that's probably true. But what it's really doing is making me a better business person.