All Forum Posts by: Justin Igoe

@Justin Igoe I have hired a bookkeeper for the first time in 2024. We initially spent about 20 hours getting my accounts set up and organized in Quickbooks. This included all the data from the first 6 months of the year as I did not hire her until July.

I’ve got her dealing with 8 properties which have individual accounts. As well as 3 credit cards which so far have not cooperated and synced with Quickbooks which takes some extra time each month.

I have a biweekly zoom with the bookkeeper that usually takes about 20 minutes.

I have already received my preliminary documents from her for my accountant. I expect to finalize them by the end of January.

She is also sending out my necessary 1099s. She currently spends 5-6 hours a month on my stuff. This has been well worth it compared to the 40+ hours I was previously spending doing this myself come tax prep time. It was at the suggestion of my accountant that I hired the bookkeeper. Having the books properly set up for the first time ever will help me get all the deductions I’m entitled to. This will save me much more money eventually than the cost of the bookkeeper.

@Justin Igoe

youcan file your own 1099's for around $5.00 each on Yearli it takes less than 5 minutes each.

 That's a great question Justin, that's more than I pay but I can't tell you if that's overpaying because everyones taxes are so varied. I would maybe recommend reaching out to another CPA or two to get an idea of the cost in your area and with your situation to see if you're overpaying. I recommend starting your search here to find other reputable tax pros to compare to https://www.biggerpockets.com/business/finder/tax-and-financ...

I was using Quickbooks, but it isn't setup for real estate when you first sign-up, and this made it kinda messy. That might be why you had these problems  @Justin Igoe. You have to do some work to create real estate specific "Classes" and expense accounts for QB. The QB subscription that includes "Classes" is $85 and this is expensive when I started looking around. 

I found Stessa and Digb to be the best options for organizing real estate portfolio and taxes, cheaper, and real estate focused. 

1.  Your right.  Don’t listen to the responses above.  You know you’re right.  The “Tenant” as you referred to her is wrong.  Your contract bullets above are very explicit.

Ask your tenant if she has a shotgun.  If she doesn’t buy her one.  Pay for her to take gun classes.  If you can’t find one.  Have her contact me.  I’m a certified NRA Rifle and Shotgun instructor.  I’ll train her over the phone.

Can your wife take a shotgun and shoot a groundhog?  The tenant should be able to also.

2.  Looked at your background.  You want to be a General doing syndications.  You have a problem if you want my money.  You need to pay attention to detail.  You referred to her as the “Tenant”.  Please read your legal above.  

3.  Go down to the grocery store and buy a jar of creamy Skippy.  Then contact me.

My point in one and two above, is forget about being right.  If you’re about developing or working with other people’s money, it’s about getting it done.  At 8% interest things have to get done.