New Bank Account for House Hack?

Question

I recently closed on my first house where I will rent out the spare rooms. As this is my first house, I’m using a first time home buyer loan which requires the house to be my primary residence for at least a year.

I want to know if I should start a new bank account and run all house expenses through that or if should charge house expenses to my personal bank account while tracking charges via excel.

Is anything effected if I treat my personal property like a business where I open a separate bank account for this house?

Daniel Johnson · Answer

@Jack Robinson, @Bruce Woodruff is spot on.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

I would keep your personal bank account for expenses that are definitely not business related, and open a new 'Rental account' for expenses that are purely business. Some will be split (like buying a Costco pack of TP) and in those cases, you just write a check from one account to the other to settle the difference...

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Jack Robinson I keep separate accounts for my different properties. I live in a house hack and pay the building expenses out of the building account and my personal expenses related to the building out of my personal account. For instance my wife and I pay certain bills each like electric and cable out of our personal account but the income from the residents pays the property taxes out of the business account.

Also my bank has me with a “personal” checking account because of the number of transactions each months and the fees associated etc. so you may not actually need a true business account. Just a second account. This way I also get it on my online banking without a big hassle which the business account at my bank creates for online banking for some reason.

New Bank Account for House Hack?

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