All Forum Posts by: Jeff Lawlor

Thanks Laura. I do have an account for business expenses and use it as often as I can. This being an ADU attached to my home, there's no way to unbundle certain expenses like utilities.

I'm not married to Stessa. I do like that it offers both accounting and performance tracking. I want both features and don't want to enter my data in two software packages to get both. I'm very open to alternatives to Stessa that do both.

Thanks, Bruce. I do this whenever I can. Certain things just come bundled, though. Utilities for example.

"On the services/products that are used by both, just pay with the larger house account and have the smaller house write a check as a 'pay-back'."

That's a good point- if I pay for it all out of my personal account, the LLC should be cutting me a check for the business expense portion. I've been skipping that step so far!

I suppose if I follow that practice, I would only have a single transaction in Stessa- my LLC cutting a check for the business expense portion of the invoice.

It appears I was asking the wrong question!

Thanks for the reply, Mohammed. I chose Stessa because it's specific to real estate investing. It does both accounting/bookkeeping and lets me track my portfolio's performance.

That said, would I be in the same boat with QuickBooks: I have one invoice that covers both business and personal expenses. Are you saying there's a way to split a transaction where the personal expenses go to a personal account rather than my LLC?

I have an ADU next to my primary residence and often buy things for both units. I'm using Stessa and looking for the right way to record only the business expenses.

Here's what I'm doing:

1. Enter an inbound "owner contributions" transaction for the personal expense amount
2. Enter a transaction for the full invoice amount
3. Split the transaction- one goes into the appropriate spending category. The other goes to "owner contributions" in a negative amount- exactly negating the positive owner transfer in step 1

Am I doing this right? If not, what should I do instead?

Thanks,
Jeff

Greetings!

I recently inherited a decent portfolio including some multifamilies and SFHs when my Dad passed away. I have limited experience in residential real estate investing, though I'm coming up to speed as quickly as possible. 

I've interviewed all my property mangers. I've read Mutlifamily Millionaire Vol 1 (working on Vol 2). My goal is to increase cashflow to the point where I can replace my income as a software architect.

Analyzing my properties, I have a long way to go. However, none of the properties have any leverage. I see lots of potential to create that income!

It's a pretty solid portfolio. I'm not making any sudden moves with it until I know what I'm doing.

I really like the resources and community I'm finding at BP. I'm looking forward to connecting with you!

Jeff