All Forum Posts by: Landon Mizuguchi

Quote from @Roshan Srinivasan:

Title says it all. I've been looking into BRRR and buy-and-flip in the Bay Area and was curious which areas people have generally been focusing on for greater ROI and also if they have been investing as a solo investor or as part of a real estate fund. Thanks!

I know a few people DM me

Quote from @Adam Mathews:

We have 27 properties all under their own LLC's (each LLC has between 2 and 4 members) plus a couple other misc. entities (totaling ~33) and recently our accountant of 40 years retired. We have been searching for someone to take over and have been getting quotes as high as $1,200/WEEK for annual tax filings including some book keeping and payroll for 2 entities. (No strategy calls, or advice meetings/etc)

Are these the normal rates for the NYC area?

I appreciate any feedback or comments, thank you.

@Adam Mathews Since you have 33 entities and multiple members per LLC you might consider using this platform, Digb.com, to track ownership/LLCs across your portfolio and you can invite your real estate CPA to help with taxes.

I have 10 LLCs and each with multiple members and it is a lot easier to issue K-1s to LLC partners and collaborate with them and your CPA. Saved me a lot of time and hours billed by CPA.

Quote from @Logan M.:

Quote from @Landon Mizuguchi:

Quote from @Logan M.:

As I have been acquiring more real estate I have had to figure out how to scale the business utilizing Software and people. My systems are not perfect but I am consistently looking for ways to improve. 

This is my general breakdown:

Software

-Rent Manager

-Asana for Project Management 

-Google Suite for back emails, phone numbers, and Google Drive

-REI Hub for Accounting specifically for the properties

Employees

-Operations Manager

-An assistant to the OM mainly helping with call follow-up, part-time

-Full-Time Handyman

I would like to know what beneficial tools others are using.

Here's mine

Software
- Zillow for rent collection
- Google sheets for project management 
- Builduim for project management
- Google Suite for back emails, phone numbers, and Google Drive (also use box.com)
- Digb for taxes and tax software

 Can you tell me more about Digb?

Sue, I use Digb for tax planning and tax filing across my rental portfolio. 

One of the challenges I have right now is that the financial info for my rentals are spread out across self-managed and property managers and I have a couple investments properties in LLC with a few partners and a couple in my own name. Digb pulls all of info (e.g. bank, property management statement) together in one place where and can also add my investment partners and get a sense of taxes due / savings during year for portfolio. 

At the end of the year it's easy to file taxes and then me and my LLC partners can just download K-1s and file our personal taxes.

Quote from @Logan M.:

As I have been acquiring more real estate I have had to figure out how to scale the business utilizing Software and people. My systems are not perfect but I am consistently looking for ways to improve. 

This is my general breakdown:

Software

-Rent Manager

-Asana for Project Management 

-Google Suite for back emails, phone numbers, and Google Drive

-REI Hub for Accounting specifically for the properties

Employees

-Operations Manager

-An assistant to the OM mainly helping with call follow-up, part-time

-Full-Time Handyman

I would like to know what beneficial tools others are using.

Here's mine

Software
- Zillow for rent collection
- Google sheets for project management 
- Builduim for project management
- Google Suite for back emails, phone numbers, and Google Drive (also use box.com)
- Digb for taxes and tax software

@Jose Jacob I started out n spreadsheets also till portfolio out grew it. Move it Quickbooks and then realized they don't support flips / buy and hold very well when you hav multiple properties to I moved to Digb since the focus on real estate investors. 

@Hamid Kelishadi check out Digb. They specialize in this kinda thing. 

@Padam Neopane I tried QB, but it doesn't;t handle multiple properties well and the standard classes or whatever you call them aren't for real estate so I looked at Stessa and Digb (both focused on real estate) and eventually went with Digb because they have more accurate auto-classification of transaction after you link bank accounts so you don't need to do bookkeeping.

Jesse Scheidel it's a tough time to be looking for a CPA with the 10/16 deadline a week away. If you decided to expand your search beyond Grand Rapids, MI you might check out Digb. I can't guarantee they have availability right now, but you can check them out. 

 @Kristin Riker congrats on closing the deal and breaking out of Analysis Paralysis. Feedback on accounting & taxes piece / tracking income and expense for portfolio. 

• Spreadsheet is one option as Joseph Palmiero pointed out (if you like spreadsheets and doing this manually)
• Quickbooks Online ($85 per month). You’ll need help setting it up to track multiple rentals as @Ivan Rodriguez pointed out. Looks like a lot of CPAs like this one, but they aren’t paying for it - you are.
• Stessa (Free, but eventually $20 a month, let’s be honest). Specifically, built for real estate investors to manage their portfolios. You mentioned on this thread and a good option.
• Digb ($1 a month, but $19 a month if you have > 1 property). Built for real estate investors to track income and expenses and also has a lot of tax functionality to simplify planning/filing for you or CPA at the end of the year. Autocategorizes transactions when you link bank accounts and takes the manual tediousness out of spreadsheets. 

Worth checking out all 3 and picking the one that best meets the needs of your portfolio. Personally, I started out on spreadsheets and then moved to software at the end of the year since it got overwhelming and my CPA was going to charge me a clean-up fee for the spreadsheet. Hope this helps! :) 

Buyan Thyagarajan Quick comparison of the most popular tools for REI accounting/taxes below

• Quickbooks Online ($85 per month). You’ll need help setting it up to track multiple rentals. Looks like a lot of CPAs like this one, but they aren’t paying for it - you are.
• Stessa (Free, but eventually $20 a month, let’s be honest). Specifically, built for real estate investors to manage their portfolios. You mentioned on this thread and a good option.
• Digb ($1 a month, but $19 a month if you have > 1 property). Built for real estate investors to track income and expenses and also has a lot of tax functionality to simplify planning/filing for you or CPA at the end of the year.

Worth checking out all 3 and picking the one that best meets the needs of your portfolio.