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All Forum Posts by: Brian McCarter

Brian McCarter has started 10 posts and replied 27 times.

Post: App folio to Xero integration

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4

Hey, everyone!
If you’re managing properties and using AppFolio but find it frustrating to convert reports for Xero, QuickBooks, or other accounting tools, I’ve been in the same boat. After dealing with this for 5 years by hand, I developed a software tool that makes the process much easier.

It’s been a huge time-saver for me, and I’m happy to share more about how it works if this is something you’re struggling with too. Feel free to reach out or reply here if you’d like to discuss!
Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Post: Property Management Software Can't Export Transactions

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4

6 years later, many PM's still act like your the only one asking for a spread sheet. 

Post: I quit my CPA Job to buy Large Apartment Buildings

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4
Originally posted by @Brian Adams:

@Robert Blanchard, I haven't ever built a property out of the ground so I am afraid I don't have an answer for you.

Re:management companies, I currently use third party management companies. As my portfolio grows in a particular location I will consider forming my own PM company.

Congrats to your father!! I have self-managed properties before and tried to run the whole show to save $$$. I am a CPA and I am frugal. But over time I found trying to do everything myself was not the best solution. Even for small product we bid out repairs and painting to get the best pricing and leverage others people skill sets.

Also I am not very handy so my time is better spent looking for deals for my investors.

Long time lurker on this thread and I appreciate all the tips you have given people over the years. 

Do you have any best practices for managing property managers?

Do you use your own property management software and plug in local managers, or do you use each PM's system. 

How do you handle coaching your pm's when there are areas they could do better, but may be resistant to change?

Where is your break even point in units to bring management in house?

Post: I quit my CPA Job to buy Large Apartment Buildings

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4
Originally posted by @Brian Adams:

Getting the deal pieces ready to purchase another 500+ unit apartment complex.

Giddy up...

 Awesome news. I am making my first major exit soon and have transitioned into larger projects.  What was the number one most surprising thing for you about these larger deals vs doing smaller ones? It would be a pleasure to hear more about your experience with them. 

Post: Entertainment / Meal Receipts

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4

@Gita_Faust , what rule are you basing your 100% deduction of these meal expenses on?  

Publication 463 clearly states that the 50% limit would apply in the first three cases.

"The 50% limit applies to business meals or entertainment expenses you have while:

  • Traveling away from home (whether eating alone or with others) on business,
  • Entertaining customers at your place of business, a restaurant, or other location, or
  • Attending a business convention or reception, business meeting, or business luncheon at a club."

Also you might want to double check the tax court cases in regards to eating meals alone. I read a case where an attorney ate out breakfast every day alone and did work at the same time in a dinner near his office. His deductions were invalidated.

@StevenHamilton

Can you shed some light here?  My knowledge of this area of the tax code is a bit weaker than others.

Post: 3 house deal ?

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4

Ask your lenders if they do "blanket loans".  Those are the type that cover more than one property at a time.

Post: Condominium Conversion Spreadsheet

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4

Double post by accident. Moderator please delete.

Post: Condominium Conversion Spreadsheet

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4

Does anyone have a good spreadsheet for condominium conversions? I am looking at a mixed use building in the 6 to 12 unit range in an expensive area of the country. I would like to learn from the wisdom of others and build off of what has been used successfully. If I made any substantial additions to it, I would be happy to share it with the community and give credit to the person who made the original. Specifically, I am looking to track the projected rehab cost of each unit, cash flow from rented units, first lien costs, general partners and limited partner returns. If anyone has something like this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Post: Rejecting Law Students

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4

@Ann Bellamy Your always a source of wisdom and experience.  I also share your sentiment that there are a lot of wonderful people who are lawyers in the world with whom I have had the pleasure of being friends or working with. There are also those that sue everyone for sport. While I can understand that as being and interesting intellectual hobby, we have business to run in a risk heavy business, and my job is to bet the odds and mitigate risks.

Unfortunately I did not make it to the meeting with Chairwoman of the Board of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. I will send a PM to you to forward to her and post any results for the group.  We are both sure that you can auto reject lawyers. It's law students, and in this particular case a law student at an internship with a law firm that's in question. The distinction may not matter, but we will find out. 

Post: Rejecting Law Students

Brian McCarter
Pro Member
Posted
  • Investor
  • boston, MA
  • Posts 31
  • Votes 4

Medical students actually are my target market since it's a 1 min walk to a medical school. 

I am also well versed in landlord tenant law to the point that I have corrected real estate attorneys on a few occasions.

The problem is that I am in the legally flawed state of Massachusetts which lacks a rent escrow law and has a sanitary code that is easy for a "professional" tenant to abuse legally. A code violation that is the landlords fault can be created as easily as removing the outlet cover and calling inspectional services. The only real cure is to screen people.  Lots of the old time landlords automatically reject lawyers and law students because since they have a high tendency to take you to court and abuse the numerous loopholes in the laws. Even if you do everything right, you can still lose in court here. We lobby constantly to close the loopholes to at least make the law fair.

When I got my real estate license and took the refresher class to keep the license (by an attorney no less teaching) it was stated that it was legal to discriminate against law students and lawyers. As others have mentioned, law students and attorneys, don't appear to be protected classes.  I am wondering if anyone has tested it in court people and if they have ever run into problems? 

Also I apologize for any flaws in my grammar since this was typed and edited on my phone.