All Forum Posts by: Tony Morales

Hi Steve! In today's world, CPAs from anywhere in the country can help you virtually just as your neighborhood CPA firm, but not all CPA firms are built the same. A lot of established CPA firms are no longer taking clients as the entire industry is struggling with staffing problems (too many retirees, not enough new CPAs entering in). You'll find plenty of CPA firms here in BiggerPockets eager and able to help you, should you reach out to them. We're not allowed to publicly advertise ourselves in the forums, but reach out privately and I'm sure we can help you.

The cheapest/simplest way I would recommend is using Excel spreadsheet. You keep track of all of your real estate related transactions (date, amount, vendor name, purpose, property identifier) and then create a pivot table from this data to quickly create a rough Profit & Loss Statement. Of course, this assumes you're keeping track of everything religiously, as it would be hard to reconcile such records and ensure completeness.

Otherwise, look into hiring a bookkeeper/accountant/CPA who can provide this as a service for you and can help advise you proactively, so you can prevent issues rather than remedying them after the fact.

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $230,000
Cash invested: $20,000

Long-term rental property with high appreciation potential.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Big amount of square footage in a high cost area. 3/3 made it attractive as a starter house.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Luckily enough, I had helped my previous boss at the time move from his unit next door months prior. So I had already seen the inside of the townhouse. When I saw this one up for sale, I put in an offer at asking price before even having seen the home prior. Crazy how hot the market was then, and still is today.

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional mortgage, HOA does not allow immediate rental (need to live in it for 2 years), and so I did but with the intent of renting it in the future.

How did you add value to the deal?

New A/C, new fencing, and new appliances.

What was the outcome?

High cash flowing rental, especially since I refinanced during the low rate environment into a 15-yr, 2% mortgage. I pay off principle of the mortgage around 13-14K a year and expect it to be an amazing long-term, cash flowing rental.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Being it was my very first deal ever, getting past the scariness of it all was the biggest challenge. It took every penny I had at the time to get in on this, then I had to get into more debt to furnish it and make it a home. I was cash strapped for about a year or two, but worth it in the end and would totally do it again.