All Forum Posts by: Cliff Benner

I can agree to keeping it simple, so many people are disappointed when I tell them that they can't combine all their LLCs under one subscription because that doesn't allow for proper Accounting Reporting and it would eliminate any Liability protection they thought they had, so now they have to pay for multiple subscriptions to get their books done correctly. 

 My headache is actually finding down payments and time to analysis the properties, I 10x my Bookkeeping Business in 1 year and doubled my Candle Business in 1 year so managing them takes me away from Real Estate. For my exact story in the beginning when I had a bad team, check out episode #610 of the BP podcast, I was actually on it discussing my terrible time. Since then I did fire my old team, except my Mortgage Broker, and replaced them. My new PM is great and has good systems in place, the location of my rental is a C- and doesn't get the most attractive tenants but decent ones, while it is also unique, having 4 bedrooms. So this makes me have to Manage my PM a bit more, but an hour a month for that and bookkeeping is worth the $400 in Accounting Cash Flow. 

With my current team, I trust them, but verify every detail myself by asking them to provide me their comps and reasoning and then question them if I don't agree with them or understand, as I am an Accountant/Investor, not a PM or Realtor who look at things differently. I created my Buy Box and explained to Tyler, what I want and expect from him and a future property, I asked him to define the location we should look and why. I was upfront with him and told him I want to buy and have him be my realtor for a long time, so if he pushes me to buy a bad place I won't use him again and won't recommend him. 

Trust but Verify is key, but as an OOS Investor, it is hard to get an ARV in my head from this market, knowing that the house two blocks down may or may not be a good comp because of how that Market is. I have to rely on my team, which is good because I don't want to waste his time while I am busy, so I don't reach out until I know I am ready to buy something. I just analysis until I am ready.

I invest in Dayton, my first purchase went terrible because my realtor did a bad job on comps as well. I now use @Tyler Everidge, who I found from here on BP and he has done a better job at presenting me comps and his reason for ARVs. I have not used him yet, just due to my businesses have me working more than ever, but I have how he presents his estimates.

Dayton has been very hard to see how the market works, my rental would go on the market for $160k today, but a mile away similar comps can be $100-$250k. It just seems to literally be block by block. 

In my opinion it is a Cash Flow market, not Appreciation. even at 7% I am making the 1% rule and could find more in that market that make the same thing but when I go for my next one, I will focus on the area being a better Class and get a little less Cash Flow for less of a headache.

 I am exactly the same way with my business and what I tell people.

 I found it to be hard to use Titan when I was in the system. But connecting to QBO is easy for almost all banks, there is some steps to take where you login through QBO and choose what accounts you give QBO Access to.

I like Relay, you can have up to 18 checking and 2 savings accounts for no charge, and you would be able to easily connect them to a bookkeeping software.

I use Relay for three of my businesses and it works great for us. I have not personally tried the Wire feature though.

I am an Accountant and use it and refer my clients to it as well, connect with me and I will look to see what the costs are to send a wire, they do allow free check and ACH payments if timing is not a factor.

I had a client who used Titan, and as an Accountant I did not like it. Also check if Titan charges monthly fees, I know Relay doesn't.

Have you tried Bizbuysell, Crexi, or LoopNet?

Start ups are hard, expensive, and take a long time to get going.

Have you looked on Bizbuysell, Crexi, or Loopnet, to see if there is one that is already going for sale? Or talked to owners of an existing one that looks like it is from the 90s to see if they would like to sell?

 If you start looking and start the in depth Due Diligence process, please reach out to me. I have an Acquisition Analytics service for Business purchases that are under $5mil in revenue, that I do with my Bookkeeping Firm. I can help run their existing numbers to get more of an idea of the Business's Financials and work with you on how a loan payment would affect cash flows.