Figured I'd get a post up providing basic and high-level advice on bookkeeping and tax planning/strategy for my fellow investment real estate gurus.1.

Do you manage the bookkeeping yourself or ask CPA to do ?

I currently do bookkeeping for a large property management company and assist with admin duties for a local investor funding company (to pay the bills).

Hello everybody,I am from Milford, CT. Me and my husband just bought our first investment property in New Haven, CT. I am here to learn, to read about other R/E stories, and to share experiences with you.  

Their bookkeeping seems erratic: I've been paid quarterly, monthly and twice a month.

If the habit is to pay late and pay the late fees each time then as long as they are causing no other issues you keep them.The KEY is that they never go over 30 days as next months bill will start snowballing and they will want to do partial payments.It will create extra hours for you or your property manager to collect and additional bookkeeping.

My partner is handling the phone calls/tenant issue (late payers) If we decide to evict them I help out my partner (probably because I am the more intimidating one :) and get them out. ) We also have a lot of book keeping that needs to be done, we have our own income statement set up in excel that tracks all of this and following our taxes this year we plan to create a balance sheet (to track equity) We have thought about property management but I am not sure how much ballpark that will cost us.thanksMike

My husband does our bookkeeping but I believe that expenses are tracked per property not per unit and that he entered in the loan amounts based on the appraised value of the individual properties.

Most CPA and tax preparers are just a tool you still need to learn to wielded - their answers will be as good as your questions and preparation.You'll still need to learn how to do your bookkeeping...or pay someone to do it for you.

Account Closed One more thing I notice, book keeping seems way out there at over $100 per month the year total is $1230, that's with a bonus that's crazy.