All Forum Posts by: Simon W.

@John Kim  - welcome to BP. If you need help, don't forget to shout :)

@John Blackman  - thanks for the response. This helps out a lot. I can use your feedback to make my company tackle these issues. I think that a cloud-storage is key.

I used to work for a management firm and we have invoices scanned so that there is a digital copy of each invoice. Just food for thought :)

@Gita Faust  - i just read an article yesterday showing a bookkeeper stole $650K for like 10 years or something for a company. This is why you some kind of audit

"if you can't create a budget and statement of financial condition (balance sheet) for yourself you shouldn't be investing in real estate"

where did you get that from? that's why you hire an accountant that specifically knows real estate. don't just go looking for a CPA.

you need to know how to analyze the report, which is pretty simple.

$3/hr bookkeeper? I personally do not know why people would budget so low for a good accountant/bookkeeper to deal with their books. Are you hiring people from out of the country?

@Frank Jiang - I'll have to check it out, but I think overall of using excel for report schedule is a bit of a hassle. 

Advice1: get a BS/BA in Accounting. Get a full-time job, save enough for a down payment. Get a loan. I don't think you would get a high enough LTV with a part-time job.

Or if you want to skip out of the full-time job scenario;

Advice2: Find a property for $15K with a min. repairs that will bring the ARV to $50K+

Find a hard money lender which is usually 65%-75%, let's say 65%.

With your $10K as part of the 35% skin in the game. 

You can borrow close to $28500 before points and interest. You got closing cost to consider and property taxes to consider. 

Best case scenario: You sell the house in 2 weeks priced at $50K minus ~$35K of hardmoney leaving you $15K minus $10K of investment 

gain $5K and get taxed on that

Advice3: if you have a friends/family that can loan you private money

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I think you should go with advice 1 or 3. 

Biggest mistake is NOT "not starting early." 

The biggest mistake is not planning 15 steps ahead of the game.

If you do not like accounting, why bother getting a degree in it? Forcing yourself to learn accounting is not fun unless you know what you want to do with it.

@Mick Harvey - Do not use debit cards. I would suggest to open up 1 credit card with your "main" LLC.

This calls for a monthly credit card reconciliation to figure out what expenses belongs to what entity. You would then do a reimbursement via Transfer Funds electronically in your bank website and record a journal entry "due to/from xxxx" account.

it's less of an hassle and this is how I do it for the companies I worked for. That will also be the way I would do it for my clients as well. Debit card can taps directly to your account which is straight cash. Never use debit card for any transaction.

Credit Card with rewards is a plus and would be categorized as Misc. Income.

Have the PM to make a note on the receipts which LLC it is for

@Frank Jiang  - i saw your post. i think it's good you're sharing it :) no shame in it at all!

I haven't checked out the sheet itself, but if I recall correctly, it's more of an analyzing tool than actual day-to-day accounting report right?

@Troy Fisher - from my experience working as a property accountant I think a good approach is to not have the PM to pay for all the expenses out of their account.

They should run a check run report and have you approve which checks are to be sent out. They should have a schedule of when the debt services are pull so this way your account have enough money to cover.