All Forum Posts by: Stefan D.

Hey all,

Looking for recommendations for an accountant / tax professional to prepare my 2023 (and beyond) taxes. I own my primary, and rental properties that are in 2 other states, mostly long-term and 1 STR. Hoping to pay <$1k, but if that's not realistic please bring me down to earth.

Thanks in advance!!

I pay someone to manage my Airbnb since its out of state.  20% of rents and no fees.  Absolutely no complaints, I've got 4.95 stars 16 months in, and nothing but super positive reviews.  I admire people who self manage from a distance, but that's not for me - I've got a job and I want to be able to go on vacation.  Good luck with whatever you choose.

@Cliff Benner Thanks for the recommendation! I'll check out Wave

@Nicholas Spinazze 

Yes, it spreads it out and runs a large number of simulations.  You can choose the "skew" of the distribution (ie: is maintenance a normal distribution around $200/mo or is it a distribution with a long right tail), which is definitely something only super nerdy number people would care about - so maybe if I marketed this tool I would try to keep it a little more simple and hide some things under advanced settings.

Have you looked at the existing tools for that yet?  I have to imagine there's some good ones out there already.

@Andrzej Lipski

Nice work getting the crawling to work. I got blocked on trying to scape all the main real estate websites.  If those main API Feeds can charge so much I bet there's room for you to make some money undercutting them.

Hey Nicholas,

Not exactly a software engineer, but I am a Python / Data guy.

1. I pulled county home sales in my target area, and called an API that converts address to Lat and Long.  From this, I made a map that showed which areas had the highest increase in home prices, to show the "path of progress", ie: which areas are on the edges of the appreciating areas that might appreciate next.  It point out a new neighborhood that wasn't on my radar before, but ultimately two deals fell through there and I bought somewhere else.

2. I built a real estate calculator that works probabilistically. IE: instead of saying maintenance is $200 / month, it uses a distribution, most months it's $0, while some months its $2000. It gives a range of outcomes for each investment: IE: in 10 years the 80% confidence interval for ROI is 2-14%. At some point I'd like to build this into a website, but html is such a pain the butt.

As for automations, I just use Mint, and then export the data and use excel to automatically categorize things - not a very Software Engineer type solution, but it makes my accounting pretty quick.

@Jay Hinrichs They are charging a higher monthly management fee.  You own a lot of properties, you don't think delinquent rent payments are something you can forecast?  Or do you mean specifically right now with a looming recession?

Thanks for the update @Scott Michael Gross

I'm getting a bit more traction with them and I think I see the light at the end of tunnel for getting the accounting issues fixed.  It took setting up regular meetings with the PM (most people at the company, including the CEO have the option to book something on their calendar from a link in their email signature).  

Some other updates:  I'm on the OneRate plan.  They have been covering maintenance as promised with a $199 deduction, although be aware that sewer line issues are not covered.

They have not yet reimbursed me for the rent guarantee I'm owed on my 1 delinquent property, I hope we get that squared away soon.  

@Scott Michael Gross

Originally I was just going to move one unit over to them, but they offered me a deal if I moved my whole portfolio over to them.

I hope it saves time later on when I don't have to nitpick over maintenance costs since I'll just be paying the $200 deductible - but I do worry that they'll let my properties fall apart since it seems to take them really long to address any issues.  Right now the borough of Avalon is complaining about my lawn not being mowed, it's been 3 weeks since the complaint and they still haven't set up lawn service.

How was buying a home from them?  I have been watching the deals they are emailing out.

@Todd Bednarz @Scott Michael Gross

Updates:

Books were a total mess, it took A LOT of phone calls to get everything straightened out, but ultimately I got paid 100% with no fees for the first 2 months.  I guess I was expecting this but it was still a pain in the a**.  They've been slow about getting issues taken care of, like setting up lawn mowing for my two duplexes.

So in summary, financially it is what they are promising, but it's a mess.   

Nothing wrong with questioning if what we're doing is right or wrong - all the comments calling the OP a snowflake or a virtue signaler are out of line.  Robert's asking a good question.

I one one Airbnb property and several long term rentals, and I think about this a lot too.  It brings money into the rural town where I own it: my PM was able to quit her job at the coal mine once she took my property on.  But, Airbnb's like mine make it harder for long term locals to afford to stay in the area as long term rental units are being converted to STRs.  The whole Airbnb investor community is (unintentionally) kicking out locals to make money.