All Forum Posts by: Sean Kehoe

@Sean Kehoe

Just a quick hint for next time. 

You can throw all your comments, thanks and questions in one reply

@name thanks

@name2 how about this?

@name 3 I’ll look in to that

@name4 cool

Etc. 

I'm old school it sounds like....excel is what I use.

I have an accounting background so it's easy for me to use. I reconcile all my bank accounts in excel. I keep track of expenses down to the penny because I have a background in the subject. 

Excel is free. For one property you honestly don't need any software, and if you do end up using one you should use the free version. 

Quicken (Quickbook’s little brother) is $50 and overkill for what you’re asking but it can help you with your personal record keeping, auto enter bank and credit card transactions, keep track of expenses that are not property specific and yet you want to deduct from your taxes (cell phone, internet, accounting software, computer, etc…)

It will let you track each form of income and expense per property and not related to any property. 

@Sean Kehoe

Keep it simple.  Just use a spreadsheet, one for each property.  Keep it simple.  Date, description, credit/debit, category.  Excel can sum up your expenses by category.  Use the category as on SchE for your tax return so its a quick copy and paste.  

There is no need to reinvent the wheel with fancy software...  This is just plain, bookkeeping.  For a rental, there are so few entries, too.  Its not like you are running a pizza shop or something...  Good luck.

@Sean Kehoe

Any thoughts on REI HUB?

Stessa, Available, Apartments.com, TenantCloud, Renttecc, etc.

use the magnifying search tool at the top of your screen and a search for "property management software" and you'll find plenty of discussion. There is no such thing as perfect software. You need to make a list of what is important to you, then search Google for the top softwares. Most of them are free with very inexpensive upgrades for online payments or other extra features. Just a few of them out, find one that you enjoy using, and stick with it for a while. After a year, you may decide to stay with it or you may decide to research further and look for something that better suits your needs. 

Hey @Sean Kehoe! I'm a real estate investor and own a bookkeeping & CFO firm that purely serves real estate investors. I've been exactly where you're at myself with my own portfolio.

Congrats on converting your first house into a rental!! I've done that myself with one of my duplexes after househacking it for a while.

As mentioned above, excel works just fine for a property or a few properties. I'm personally a fan of Stessa for a few properties. It works great as a single-entry accounting software if you are looking for a software rather than the old school excel method. It's totally free and has a decent receipt snap feature. They add new features to the app every year and it still remains free. 

For your tax questions, speak with your CPA/tax filer for exactly what they need from you come tax season. Prepare your questions ahead of time to make the most of the meeting. Preferably work with a CPA/tax filer who invest in real estate themselves or mostly works with real estate investors. They will be invaluable to you.

There's a lot more to discuss as you can probably guess. I'm happy to answer questions!

I use Apartments.com to manage the lease and collecting payments. 

I use Stessa for accounting. Its free to use and there is an app and a website so really easy to send the accounting stuff to the CPA at the end of the year.