All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

How long would it take you to pull your spreadsheets together to give a complete balance sheet of your operation? It takes me about 10 seconds in QuickBooks.

If you do your own taxes, which I do then have them reviewed by my accountant, TurboTax will import the data from QuickBooks and if you have it set up correctly for your entity, it will put it on the right tax lines GUARANTEED. Can't get that from a spreadsheet.

BTW, I am not discouraging your use of spreadsheets to run your company. If it works for you, great. I'm just pointing out the benefits of a real accounting system go way beyond just tracking income and expenses.

1 Vote

Originally posted by Mark Yuschak:

Taz, thank you for the detailed reply! Sounds like I just need to spend more time with it. In the worst case....are you for hire for QB configuration?! I can setup a webex or something! :lol:

What do we have to do to gain access to the tutorial you're authoring? I'd be more than happy to pay for such a lesson.

It sounds like you found a great local resource but if it doesn't work out let me know. I charge a flat $100 to review and fix a QB setup for landlords.

0 Votes

Without a doubt QuickBooks setup correctly is the best option for landlords. If you need help getting started, let me know.

0 Votes

He has a very high opinion of himself.

In the late 1990's my research guys and I reviewed his books.

If you want to know everything he knows about a subject, it is in his books. But, they are very long on theory and very short on practicality.

He is not a real estate investor and has not been for many years. His reasoning for this is reading and writing about investing is a full time job. Well, it is if it is your primary job.

The money spent on gas for a trip to your local library is a better investment for the average real estate investor than buying his books.

1 Vote

He's just another guru. They are a dime a dozen these days.

0 Votes

Originally posted by Dan Inc:

Originally posted by Taz:

As your FICO drops, and it will because you are maxing out the card(s) you will find your interest rates rising.

They payment on a $25K CC balance will be somewhere between $500 and $750 a month depending upon the lender. They will go down as the balance is paid down and up as the interest rates go up.

This is the absolute worst way to invest in real estate. While technically the interest you pay should be deductible, you will face an uphill battle and have to prove every penny of interest you are deducting is legitimate.

I would recommend you look at other options. This has the very real potential of turning into a nightmare very quickly.

That's a very good point about the fluctuation. Do you know how they calculate the minimum payment? I will have to check and see if the account I have can alter the interest rate based on my credit usage/score, or if it will remain fixed as long as I make my payments on time.

Most CC are complying to federal guidelines which requires all of the outstanding interest for that period plus at least 1% of the outstanding balance. However, when the rate is low, like the one you describe, they often round it UP to 2% of the outstanding balance.

0 Votes

As your FICO drops, and it will because you are maxing out the card(s) you will find your interest rates rising.

They payment on a $25K CC balance will be somewhere between $500 and $750 a month depending upon the lender. They will go down as the balance is paid down and up as the interest rates go up.

This is the absolute worst way to invest in real estate. While technically the interest you pay should be deductible, you will face an uphill battle and have to prove every penny of interest you are deducting is legitimate.

I would recommend you look at other options. This has the very real potential of turning into a nightmare very quickly.

0 Votes

Make sure your lease says any payments received are applied in the following order.

1) Any penalties, like late rent.
2) Any billed repair items tenant is responsible for.
3) Any unpaid rent from previous months.
4) Current rent.

With that, they are still behind on the rent and you preserve all of your rights of a landlord with a tenant who did not pay the full rent amount.

0 Votes

Originally posted by Douglas Christian:

Also, I forgot this one. I am not an advocate of it, but it makes sense. If you have a credit card. This is the time I would use it to purchase a cheap fixer upper and then refi the home and pay off the credit card.

Of all the "zero down" or "other people's money" ideas of buying an investment property this is the absolute worst in my opinion. What the proponents of this method don't tell you is by doing this you make it much, much, much harder to do that refinance. In this market, it is next to impossible unless you have non-traditional funding sources already lined up. And if you have those, you should just use them from the beginning of the transaction.

0 Votes

Do you pump it out between every tenant?

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All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Account Closed has started 4 posts and replied 682 times.

Post: Bookkeeping - what's your approach?

Post: Bookkeeping - what's your approach?

Post: Acounting Software

Post: John T. Reed

Post: Armando Montelongo Cleared Of All Charges Of Theft Of Service

Post: I can't get bank loans, but I can get credit cards for a purchase... Should I?

Post: I can't get bank loans, but I can get credit cards for a purchase... Should I?

Post: Late payment

Post: How are you financing deals these days?

Post: How do you handle septic tank fees with tenants