All Forum Posts by: Karina Busch

Hey @Karina Busch, there's a great Facebook group called, "Bookkeepers for Real Estate Investors", that is centered around what you need help with. You can go there and ask any and all questions you have.

It sounds like you are leaning towards continuing to run your own bookkeeping which I think makes sense considering you have a few properties and just started.

Bookkeeping for rental properties, especially when rehabs are involved, is more complicated than most people like to believe. So, you're not "wrong" in thinking it's complicated.

The tax code plays heavily into how certain transactions are categorized and there is some flexibility regarding what we can capitalize versus deduct. You can always ask your tax pro if you're unsure.

To give you an idea, I built an extensive flow chart for our bookkeeping team to help decide if something should be capitalized or deducted for a rental property and this became our SOP for capitalizing vs deducting. Again, it's not as simple as you would think it is. Tax strategy plays into it.

With just a few properties, a Google sheet/Excel sheet works just fine. If you prefer a software, we can discuss that.

That being said, if you're interested in hiring an REI-savvy bookkeeper, I'm happy to introduce you to a few candidates so you can interview them.

If you're interested in continuing to be your own bookkeeper, I suggest joining the FB group I mentioned so you can get your questions answered as you're working through your books.

Also, I'm happy to help if/when you have specific questions. Just reach out!

I am with you, the day I hired a bookkeeper was one of the happiest days in my life. I am not kidding! 

You have to be born to be a bookkeeper. I made myself take QB classes and struggled for years, my CPA said what I am doing is about 80% correct and it was a ton of work to clean up the files. 80% is not acceptable for me when it comes to IRS stuff. And I HATED doing books with passion!

Once a month we drop off all the paperwork, they record everything in QB. They also have accountant access to my bank accounts and credit cards, so everything gets reconciled. They issue 1099 to all our contractors and oversee payroll. And also our taxes are done in no time, because there are almost zero questions to work through.

Hire a bookkeeper!

If they can do farm accounting they can do real estate in their sleep. 

Ps. I have a dozen properties and I don’t spend an hour a month on bookkeeping (maybe 30 minutes). Try quicken. It’s $50 and super simple. If you use credit card for all expenses they are all auto entered. I couldn’t imagine a bookkeeper doing it for $50/mo and I couldn’t imagine paying $50. It’s your chance to look over how you’re doing. 

If they can do farm accounting they can do real estate in their sleep. 

Ps. I have a dozen properties and I don’t spend an hour a month on bookkeeping (maybe 30 minutes). Try quicken. It’s $50 and super simple. If you use credit card for all expenses they are all auto entered. I couldn’t imagine a bookkeeper doing it for $50/mo and I couldn’t imagine paying $50. It’s your chance to look over how you’re doing. 

And your CPA has no bookkeeper referral to give you?

And what about your corporate formalities?

 Hi, Karina. I don't enjoy bookkeeping either but I couldn't stomach paying a professional bookeeper and paying for a QB subscription either. I switched to Baselane for my banking and bookkeeping and it's been surprisingly simple to do it myself. Baselane was built by real estate investors for real estate investors so it's really tailored to this particular business. They get it and they've made a platform that speaks directly to what we, as investors need. It is very simple to set up bank accounts, assign virtual credit cards, and tag revenue and expenses so you can stay on top of it. I highly recommend you check out.