All Forum Posts by: Ragan Manning

@Thomas O'Donnell I think as @Billy Daniel mentioned, you could use QB. My clients who use Buildium have over 30+ doors at a minimum. Since this is your first rental, using QB would suit you well. You do need a separate bank account for your rental, you do not want to mingle personal funds as you mentioned above. Just watch some videos on youtube about setting up your rental and how to maintain it. Learn the business so when you get bigger you can hand it off (financial side) and you have a good grasp of what's going on. Reach out if you have any questions! Good Luck and Congrats on your first duplex! 

@Razul Wallace I own my own bookkeeping business specifically working with REI. If you need some advice feel free to reach out. :)

Hey Monty,

I'm a REI bookkeeper and I'd love to try to point you in the right direction.
YouTube does have some great video on how to do REI bookkeeping yourself but there is a lot of miss information out there. Someone mentioned Hector Garcia above, and I've watched a few of his videos. I honestly wouldn't recommend him for REI bookkeeping. I think he is amazing at explaining a lot but he doesn't go into enough detail with REI. If you follow his instructions on how to input HUD documents you will be missing a lot.
I also do recommend Income Digs! I think they are a great resource and his does a great job of explains things and breaking them down. 
I personally prefer QBO but I’ve never used Quicken.

I work with a client who uses Buildium. I think it's a great software to run the business BUT NOT for accounting UNLESS it's set up correctly. I only say this because my client came from another REI bookkeeper and I'm now having to clean up a mess because the software, in my opinion, can get very tricky. I just don't think it's as user friendly as QBO or probably even Quicken.
Hope this helps! 

Hey Nicholas,
I am the owner of Manning Your Books and I work exclusively with REI clients. Please message me if you're still looking and like to talk :) good luck with your search!

I'm a REI bookkeeper so I disagree with the statement above. I have clients using other software and it doesn't match to the capabilities of QBO. Honestly their books aren't correct because of it so they don't benefit 100% with their taxes. If you want to DIY your bookkeeping, look up Income Digs. I think he does a great job of breaking it down but make sure he goes over your type of investing. (Wholesaling, flips, str, etc,) If you are still small enough to do your own bookkeeping then do it! Not everyone needs a bookkeeper or the expense of it. You can always use your resources and connections if you ever get to questions you can't answer. YouTube will be a huge asset to you. Hector Garcia was mentioned above. I think he is a master at what he does but the stuff he is put out about REI isn't the best. He leaves a lot of blanks open and he does give some miss information. There is a reason people niche in bookkeeping for just REI and it's because it's very specific on how to run the business. Looks for YouTube video from people who just do bookkeeping for REI or even brokers. Nerd Enterpise is another great one

For sure QBO. As mentioned above, they stated that have purchased QBO for each property. Personally, I do not think that is necessary unless you have an extremely large portfolio but even then you can split them between entities or property types. If you just have a couple of properties and you are only doing 1 type of investing then 1 QBO account with classes should be suitable. Good luck and reach out if you need any help

@Artur A. I currently have a client who uses Buildium and I DO NOT recommend this software for the financial side of your business. My client came to be from another bookkeeper who stated they did a cleanup/catchup for this client in Buildium. I was hired to only do monthly bookkeeping but I quickly realized their finances were not correct. BUT I have worked with this bookkeeper before and I know said bookkeeper does good work. That being said, Buildium is not well structured for the financial side even though it states it has the capabilities. If you want accurate numbers and a platform you can depend on, you need to get QBO or at least something similar for your business. Hope you find something that works 

I agree with most of the comments above about making sure you find a bookkeeper with REI experience. Not all bookkeepers are the same and that's why some specialize in different niches. When it comes to working with a large company, I would be a little hesitate. I did some contracting work for a larger company who was "great" at bookkeeping, which they may have been with generic companies but I only worked with their REI clients. Every client they sent me I had to email them with a list of things that needed to be changed or handled the correct way. It was a nightmare for me because I couldn't do anything to help these clients of theirs because I was only a contractor. NOW this is not saying ALL companies are like this, but I would just make sure your you do your do diligence to know as much as you can and ask questions to make sure they know what they are doing. As mentioned above, you get what you pay for.

My parents have a property right outside Houston Texas in Harris County. What’s the best website to showcase this property? I know Realtor isn’t best for commercial land.  

@Sunny Singh I’d be more than happy to set up your books and we can talk about monthly bookkeeping after.