All Forum Posts by: Chase Gochnauer

Daniel, congratulations! I thought I was reading an article about myself! I'm also 32 and in about 1.5 weeks will be closing on #135 in almost exactly 2 years as well! It's stressful, but exciting. I'm anxious to see what 2018 will bring. 

Originally posted by @Cathie Kovacs:

If you’re using Quickbooks Online, you can use their mobile app for this. 

But I’d recommend Receipt Bank for this. You’ll have to assign the categories but at least you’ll be looking at the receipt when you do so your people can write notes on them first before uploading them via the Receipt Bank mobile app (super easy to use). 

 Thank you, I think the Quickbooks app might be a bit overkill for my maintenance guys, and I don't know that I would be able to limit them to what they can see. But Receipt Bank looks promising, I'll test that one out now, thanks!

Hello all,

Do any of you have any good technology solutions for receipt tracking? I have 6 guys out rehabbing, doing rental maintenance, etc. Receipts are a bit burdonsome. Most apps I find are for expense reporting, which is similar but not exactly what I'm looking for.

Ideally, I'd pre-populate a list of categories to choose from including property addresses, maybe a couple general ones like "Tools" and "Fuel" and then the guys in the field take a pic of the receipt and quickly categorize it. Then at the end of the month my accounting staff can reference these when categorizing. 

Sounds so simple, yet I can't find it?

Originally posted by @Brandon Hall:

@Chase Gochnauer yes but it will apply only to new property in the first year it's in service (so if you're going for that, the cost seg needs to be performed in year 1). 

 Thanks, that would be pretty huge savings on next year taxes.

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Originally posted by @Chase Gochnauer:

@Jeff Sheraton basically, you can now fully write off assets that have a useful life of 20 years or less. Since rental properties are depreciated over 27.5 years, they don't qualify for 100% expensing. But ripping up the old driveway and replacing it with a new one would qualify for 100% expensing because land improvements have useful lives of 15 years.



@Brandon Hall Would this then mean that if you do a cost seg study and a lot of items come in under that 20 year mark, they could be immediately depreciated? Example I'm closing on a $4.25m apt complex and doing a cost seg study. So if the parking lot ends up being valued at $50k for a 15 year depreciation, I wonder if I could write that off completely next year? 

Where did you see that a driveway only last 15 years? IMO a concrete driveway should last forever!

 We don't want the IRS to think it lasts forever or you couldn't write any of it off!

@Jeff Sheraton basically, you can now fully write off assets that have a useful life of 20 years or less. Since rental properties are depreciated over 27.5 years, they don't qualify for 100% expensing. But ripping up the old driveway and replacing it with a new one would qualify for 100% expensing because land improvements have useful lives of 15 years.



@Brandon Hall Would this then mean that if you do a cost seg study and a lot of items come in under that 20 year mark, they could be immediately depreciated? Example I'm closing on a $4.25m apt complex and doing a cost seg study. So if the parking lot ends up being valued at $50k for a 15 year depreciation, I wonder if I could write that off completely next year? 

Yes, pay as much as you can. Time value of the money will likely not exceed the risk free 30-40% you'll save in taxes by prepaying.

I echo Brandon. I'm doing exactly what he's saying per my CPA recommendation.

All,

I have around 60 doors now and closing on a 72 unit in the next few weeks.

I have a PM that does a good job. Maintenance cost and quality of repairs are a big concern of mine. With being at 130-140 units, what do you guys do to keep costs under control and still have a quality repair job? I am considering doing some diligence up front and essentially interviewing several different tradesmen and come to an agreement on an hourly rate, and have them be the "goto" people for my PM. Thoughts?

@Brian Garrett You had mentioned they did not provide comps or market rent. Then you said you did diligence on a couple and they did not meet your criteria. I never gathered from that what your criteria was. Perhaps it's in another of the messages.