All Forum Posts by: Markus Shobe

I would look for remote accountants. That gives you a bigger pool to choose from. I usually say its better to separate the two. If the bookkeeper makes a mistake the CPA has a chance to catch it or if the CPA makes a mistake the bookkeeper has a chance to catch it. I just caught a mistake the CPA made on an Owner Financing deal the other day. 

I have seen it done both ways. If they are under a single LLC you are fine with just one bank account. If you plan on getting a bookkeeper in the future, just think about how he or she would know what transaction belongs to which property and how you would get that information to them.

You can take a picture on the Quickbooks app. It is straight forward to use and all you have to do is chose the category and what bank/credit card that it came from. I personally would not scan utility bills and insurance since you can always look those up. I think that would be overkill to scan every utility bill especially if you have a lot of properties. I would just scan purchases that you buy from stores. 

I would use a separate personal account. It will make bookkeeping so much easier. 

I would open up a new bank account and run the expenses through there. It will make tax time a lot easier. You never want to mix personal and business expenses together for a lot of reasons. 

I would stick with excel or even wave accounting which is free as well for a couple of properties. I would lean more towards wave accounting since it does the work for you. 

I like Quickbooks online. That's what all of my clients use. It can take some time to learn how to use it but once you do it is fairly straight forward to use and it makes tax time a breeze. 

You don't need to open a business, but you want to treat it as such. It would be considered a sole proprietorship. Keep a separate account for the real estate. It is a lot easier to track and makes filing taxes so much easier.

Material cost to a rehab would be put to the asset property and moved to cost of goods sold when you sell it. 

@Evan O'Brien Every transaction should be tracked monthly. If you are just starting out I would not recommend a bookkeeper. I would only recommend after you get some properties and the bookkeeping becomes a hassle to keep up with.