All Forum Posts by: Rene Hosman

Here's a blog I wrote about H.S.A.s invested in alternative assets Financial Independence Retire Early - Achieve FIRE Faster with a Self-Directed HSA- https://udirectira.com/achieve-fire-faster-with-a-self-direc...

My CPA just said they'll need to charge me for 8 hours of "accounting cleanup" just to get my Quickbooks ready to file taxes. Then they'll charge an additional $2,400 for filing tax returns. 

Considering that I keep QB's reconciled up to date, shouldn't any "accounting cleanup" be included in the $2,400 fee to file tax returns?

I have 8 single family rentals in 2 single member/pass through entity LLC's. 2 states. I file jointly with my wife who's a w2 employee. My CPA also quoted $350 to send out only 6 1099's total in 2 LLC's. I've been with them for years. Please tell me if I'm overpaying.

I've asked my clients a similar question and have developed tools for them to minimize this, but I find there are a few different types of clients.

Manager managed - these folks have no issues as they simply upload their year end statement from their property manager, their 1098 mortgage statement and any other one-off expenses they may have paid for outside of the management company.  Easy peasy.  Less than 10 minutes and they are done.

Self Managed, Low Volume - these folks collect the same rent every month, have minimal expenses beyond their mortgage and find it very easy to collect the few documents they have to report it.  I have a template that I provide and they can either complete the template or just give me their documents and I'll complete the template before prepping the taxes.

Self Managed, High Volume, Very Organized - these folks keep up on their activity.  They are actively managing their properties, do their own recordkeeping at least once per quarter if not more often and are ready to go with reports and back up very quickly at the end of the year.  Total time spent throughout the year may be significant, depending on the number of properties and amount of activities, but year end is no more difficult than any other time period they're doing.  These folks also tend to have all of their income and expenses going through a separate bank account so they just need to look in that one account to get everything organized.

Self Managed, High Volume, Not Organized at all - this is the type of people that stress out over tax season.  They've neglected their recordkeeping all year long and now find tax time to be very stressful.  When I encounter this type of client, I do everything I can to convert them into one of the previous clients.

First thing I have them do is run all their income and expenses through a separate account instead of their personal account.  For those who are highly disorganized, I sometimes advise them to have a separate account for each property, depending on the scenario.  I find that this helps them to really be able to focus (others, not so much).

Second thing I have them do is consider hiring me (or somebody else) to keep their books on a monthly or quarterly basis.  This way, I can get the bank statements for the property and categorize and reconcile everything.  I do this at least quarterly for some of my clients and they like being able to see the profit and loss reports.  This also helps with tax planning so clients aren't blindsided.

The tools/software that clients use is as varied as the clients themselves.  REIHub, Stessa, QuickBooks, spreadsheets, etc are all valid tools and depends on the client and how their brain works.

I wish you luck in getting yourself organized for the coming season, but would encourage you to make the recordkeeping an ongoing habit rather than a once per year stress fest.

I don't use any software (other than filing my taxes).  I keep track of expenses as they come in (I have a notebook) for each rental and file the invoices/bills/etc as soon as they come in and are paid.  I keep everything for 1 tax year in a single file and paperwork for each property is kept together.  Makes it much easier.  I have my notebook next to the area where I keep the paperwork, so it is easier to keep track of things.

Quote from @Rene Hosman:

Quote from @Marcus Ball:

Got it. Sadly, on BiggerPockets, some are quick to label companies as scams without real experience. Most negative comments come from competitors, those nitpicking minor issues, or people who haven’t worked with the company at all. It’s surprising that fake reviews are allowed to remain unchecked on this platform.

Question, If this post was a mistake, why is it left up to create confusion for potential investors? It seems like anyone can post anything without accountability—very concerning.

 We have a strict policy of not deleting posts. Why? Because sometimes posters don't like the replies they get and want to take down their post after other members have invested time in replying.

Further, once you make a post here or anywhere, its there forever. You can never fully delete what you post. Its gets indexed by search engines very quickly and all those search engines keep complete copies of everything they inde

We care about our users and future viewiers, which is why our policies exist. When you allow users to delete their own posts, you disrupt the flow of conversations.

This is an OPEN forum, not just a closed network like Facebook. We give users the ability to edit a post for 10 minutes after posting for those situations where you say something that you realize upon review needs a tweak. We also allow users to amend a post at any time with additional information by replying to that post again, just like what happened here.

We have no plans to change how the forums work as it pertains to the deletion of posts. 

As to your point about confusion in the future, it's our policy to leave the conversation and thread open and available for anyone to read, they can gather all of the information and make an informed decision for themselves based on ALL the information provided. And if they have further questions, they can post them on a thread that may have been dormant to get answers just like you did! 

Hope that helps explain the policy a bit more :)

I need to stress again that I was not in the right frame of mind when I made this post. SDIRA has been extremely accommodating in the setting of an eviction that occurred because the manager that they previously used neglected to tell them. They have since moved on to a new manager that is in close communication with me to get the repairs done and SDIRA is even offering to pay me the missing rent for December that the evicted tenant never paid. They are even working on getting me the evicted tenant's security deposit, the missing JANUARY rent since the place is still empty, and covering the cost of my own manager re-listing the property. To me that is requires major compliments, and the review I posted is not appropriate.
They really are going above and beyond in this circumstance and its not fair to them to keep this post online just because I wasn't able to reach them and discuss this over the weekend right after new years.
PLEASE reconsider taking the post down. Im even referring their properties to my friends and I look like a fool referring people who then see a scathing post from me.
PLEASE remove the post.

Got it. Sadly, on BiggerPockets, some are quick to label companies as scams without real experience. Most negative comments come from competitors, those nitpicking minor issues, or people who haven’t worked with the company at all. It’s surprising that fake reviews are allowed to remain unchecked on this platform.

Question, If this post was a mistake, why is it left up to create confusion for potential investors? It seems like anyone can post anything without accountability—very concerning.

Three individuals signed a lease together, all friends, the lease is set up where each of them are expected to pay 1/3 of the rent. Two of them decided to move out in December without informing me. One of them accidentally paid for January rent because of auto pay and is now requesting it back. I informed them that their contract states they are expected to pay up until the end of the agreement regardless of living their or not. 

Now, this tenant is saying that they don't remember any agreement and thought they paid month to month and could leave whenever. I am now under the suspicion that their friend, the one who is still living at the property, is the one who created separate accounts for all three of them and did the signing for each individual who is under this lease agreement. 

I'm trying to prepare incase this is true. What is the recourse for the tenant who signed the lease under each individuals name? And, would that invalidate the contract? Or are the other two tenants still bound to the contract regardless?

Any additional input would be great. Thank you!

Where are the best places or best ways to collect data on specific markets?

Average rental rates, vacancies, competition, growth, appreciation, etc..

Ive heard of scrolling through Zillow and collecting information by looking at properties for sale/rent but was wondering if there is a site where all of this information is easily accessible or any ideas for better ways to go about it.

Thanks in advance!