All Forum Posts by: Geri May

We are looking for reliable contractors in the Dayton, Ohio area. We need someone that is honest and prompt. Any help is greatly appreciated. We

@James Wise we are looking to connect with you, we currently have properties in Dayton and Fairborn. What is your contact information?

We are in need of a property manager in the Dayton, OH area anyone have any connections; we need a proactive manager.

Hello @Shawn Sopic, we have several properties and I have always used either excel or google sheets, I decided to do some research on QuickBooks and Xero. I have found that QuickBooks desktop is the cheapest way to go, but I need and want access while on the road and I want to give my son access as well. I heard for the online versions that xero is the cheaper of the two when you have multiple entities, so I am in the process of trying xero free trial for thirty days. The xero staff and their support has been amazing to work with and I am liking it so far. I am going to be setting up a phone call with them later this week as I am wondering where I can get some accounting codes for travel expenses, meals, and then of course repairs, maintenance, and rehab. I know a bookkeeper and/or CPA could help with this but for now I want to learn how to do these things on my own, I plan to eventually hire one or have my son take over the books later. 

I wish you and your wife the best, my husband and I have enjoyed this journey and I love learning. So many great resources and knowledgeable investors here on BiggerPockets.

I have decided to use Xero trial for my bookkeeping, where do I go to get some chart of account codes? I am wanting to know if there are specific codes I should be using for things like travel expenses, rehab, maintenance, and repairs, as well as meal expenses? I am doing my own bookkeeping for now.

For those of you working on your real estate professional hours, what do you use to document these hours? I was using  Google spreadsheet but was told about RepsTracker, I am not sure I really want to pay for another service, I am already considering switching from my Google Spreadsheet to track income and expenses to Quickbooks, any thoughts on any of this?

@Bryce Jamison I appreciate your response, I have done the phone conversations as well. It was a great way to connect with potential tenants. I usually just have my realtor fill my properties; however, since I listed on apartments.com too I decided I wanted to try a tenant screening questionnaire before sending them to the realtor to help weed out anyone that does not meet the criteria.

I attended the Landlord Bootcamp and one of the things discussed was to have tenants complete a questionnaire to weed out those that don't meet our criteria. I have created a simple Google Form with a few questions, has anyone else done this? I want to send it to a potential tenant, first time sending it out but want some feedback on the confirmation message I plan to send once they submit their answers. It will be the same confirmation response to all that submit their answers.  Here is what I wrote, please give me some feedback, I believe this is a great way to weed out some tenants, and that I am staying within the laws.

Your response has been submitted, thank you for your interest in this property. As long as you meet our criteria our relator will be reaching out to you for any additional information needed, background and credit check, as well as answer any questions you may have. At this time they will also set up a showing of the property.

@Jose Garcia we ended up staying with our handyman who has now become way too busy for small jobs. I do have a few contacts referred to by our relator and her team, I will put together those numbers and message you; however, keep in mind I have not used them but believe many of her clients have started to use them. 

Thank you all, this is very helpful. She is on a lease with her boyfriend renting one room in a three-bedroom home. The other two tenants have their own separate leases, but she is on the lease with her boyfriend but needs to leave early. I can use the lease addendum from BP Forms for Idano and write up and have her boyfriend as well as her sign plus write up separate addendums for all tenants as they have agreed to cover her portion of the rent and they will now have a rent increase so will need an addendum signed. 

@Nathan Gesner I would love that document so that I have it for the future. I appreciate you always being willing to share.

I am also wanting to do an annual lease inspection for two other properties I own as their leases are coming to an end so before they renew I want to do an inspection before they sign a new lease. Does anyone have something I can use? I want it to be a little different than the move-in move-out checklist. Thank you all!