All Forum Posts by: Brian Smith

@Jasen Crisp I have worked with RKH Landscaping a lot over the years.  PM me and I can give you contact info.

@Josh Splawn. I would advise against using them for price alone. The couple bigger repairs jobs they quoted on some of my families rentals were over a 1000 higher than what we were able to find ourselves.

When checking for contractors keep the restoration companies in mind too. They don't advertise doing rehabs but almost all of them do it.

For those of you using MACU do you have any one person that you would recommend working with?  

Welcome to BP Brian! I am in the beginning stages of my REI career as you are. I have found a plethora of information on the site so far that is moving me towards my first purchase.

Hey Joseph welcome to the fun of REI. I am here in the Treasure Valley and getting started in my journey as well. So far I have only been to one meetup but was able to take away some good information. Feel free to reach out to me and I'll do my best to answer questions.

@Chance Sweat I am in the same boat as you are right now.  I am in the process of building out my team.  I found this article on BP the other day about questions to ask property management companies.

Property Management Questions

@Daniella Sanchez I love that idea as well of asking them hypothetical questions about emergencies.  

Financial backing is what is holding me back right now.   I know I need to get out there and network myself better.  In regards to that I am struggling on how best to approach a partnership with someone willing to bring the money for a down payment on a property.

I was wondering if anyone has used something like YNAB for tracking their rental budgets while they are still small.  I know it wouldn't really be feasible once your portfolio has grown.  I currently use YNAB for all my personal stuff.  

My initial thought is to have a budget for each rental property that I own.  I would have categories setup for Vacancy, Repairs, CapEX, etc.  This way I can budget my percentage of each of those each month and see exactly where I am at dollar wise in each category.  Then when an expense comes up I can see exactly how much money I have available to use for that particular expense.  

Maybe I am overthinking this a bit as well but trying to iron out all the details for when I jump on my first property.

Wanted to reach out to investors in the Boise, Idaho area to see if you could recommend a good roofing company. 

If you are wanting to look at software you could check out YNAB (You Need a Budget).  I currently use this for my personal budgeting and finances.  You could setup multiple budgets in YNAB for each property to keep them all separate.

If you are wanting something that is closer to Quickbooks to try out you could also look into Zoho Books.  I have used the Basic package for doing the books on my wife's business.  It has an app that is integrated allowing you to snap a picture of receipts on your phone and then matching them up to your expense categories. 

Both of these programs will allow you to connect to the bank accounts and have them pull transactions in automatically.