All Forum Posts by: Cathie Kovacs

also check out HelloSign that lets you do a few free each month. 

I’d be interested!

So I'm finally setting up an LLC for a rental property I've held for decades. Now that I've done that and once I quit claim the asset to the LLC & open a checking account to receive rent & pay bills, then what?

Do I need to write new leases with the existing tenants under the name of the LLC?

Do I need to move existing security deposits into a savings account in the name of the LLC? Or leave it where it is in my personal name (separate interest-bearing account for this purpose)?

I also need to write a new insurance policy in the name of the LLC, right?

What else?

Thanks in advance 

Owner occupied properties allow for less $ down. Are you house hacking this?

I once ignorantly made the statement “I’m sorry, I don’t take Section 8” (because I had never been inspected or approved). That comment cost me $10,000. She originally asked for $65k!

You cannot refuse anyone with a lawful form of income. Let them see the unit. Give them an application. Let your unit fail the Section 8 inspection, if that’s what’s going to happen, but do NOT say that you won’t take Section 8. 

I’m a Bookkeeper (with my own rentals) but even if I weren’t, I’d still recommend getting a Bookkeeper.  

Over the years, I have saved clients thousands of dollars because I am in the weeds of their finances and can make better suggestions then a CPA only seeing their financials at tax time can.  The danger of doing this improperly yourself, besides not having current and accurate financials as others have noted, is that you are likely miscategorizing items and possibly losing out on deductions. 

I think that a qualified bookkeeper more than pays for themselves but is also likely not as expensive as you might think. It's certainly more expensive to have a CPA do bookkeeping tasks then it is to hire a bookkeeper to do so. It's also more expensive to hire a VA or other inexperienced person to do your bookkeeping, only to have to pay your CPA for their time to clean it up.

 Hope that helps. 

Your chart of accounts can evolve over time as QBs let’s you add accounts on the fly. 

Capital items aren’t really expenses; they’re assets that would be depreciated. 

Of course not but you’ll pay more in legal fees to go to court. 

“So all you have to do is come up with a non-discriminatory explanation for what happened“

Not in my experience @Ihe O.  That was my point. No one here (CT) asks for your side of the story. Since you make money being a landlord, you are assumed to be guilty. In “he said, she said” the landlord loses and the claimant isn’t even required to provide proof. 

In this case, there is audio evidence so somebody is going to pay here, it’s just a matter of who (owner, PM or PM’s insurance company). 

YouTube videos will cover how to handle most transactions. You’ll want to use classes for each property. 

I’d suggest hiring someone to set it up properly from the outset and show you how to use it within that framework. A virtual or remote bookkeeper would be more than sufficient. Try the “find a Pro-Advisor” on the Quickbooks/Intuit site.