What are the technical(digital) tools do investors and(or) general contractors use?

Question

Hi, I am a flipping investor in Seattle. I started last year with the first property to flip.

I find some parts of the process (Organizing purchases/deliveries, Payment, and managing important details) quite inefficient and painful at times. I am curious what are the tools or products out there investors are using with general contractors?

Jake Baker · Answer

@Tracy Cheon

We do 20
Flips/BRRRRs per year and use these tools:

Underwriting -
DealCheck

Project Management -
ClickUp

Bookkeeping -
QuickBooks Online Plus Subscription

Team Communication -
Slack

File Storage -
Google Drive

David M. · Answer

@Tracy Cheon

I'm more of a "traditionalist."  If you couldn't make the time to do it with pen and paper, I find that people will find it hard to do it anyway.  Yes, software is great, especially with my poor handwriting.  I just make entries onto an Excel spreadsheet for every charge.  I have MANY categories that the sheet sums, but only for my own tracking purposes.  Flips are easy for tax reporting since you just basically need to report the adjusted basis.  So, you just need the summation.

You can try to use other "systems," but to find a holistic system for a small time flipper will be hard and/or resource intensive.  On the other hand, a Pro account with Home Depot can be used to track all your purchases if you annotate which job they are for.  But, then what do you do if use other vendors?

Even for when I gutted a property down to the studs, a simple calendar (e.g. Outlook, google, etc.) is fine for me.  Admittedly, I put the tasks into MS Project just because I could --- Do NOT use software/automation to replace learning the skill.

Hope that helps.  Happy to chat if you'd like.  Good luck.

Tracy Cheon · Answer

Thanks for the reply, Sean! What are the names of other software tools you're referring to?

Jake Baker · Answer

@Tracy Cheon

Great question. Bookkeeping in general is a pain point for investors. 9/10 clients that we take on will have errors or incomplete books.

The biggest pain point was staying on top of my expense tracking. It is really easy to fall behind. The more you fall behind, the harder it is to remember where things go when you're managing 5+ rehabs at a time.

QBO does it all. Smaller investors with 1 or 2 properties don't need QBO and can get away with a spreadsheet and Google Drive for receipts.

However, learning QBO or similar software is worth learning if you plan to scale. If accounting/bookkeeping isn't your thing, consider hiring a bookkeeper to take that off your hands. Overall, masting QBO has been a game changer for our flipping business.

Tracy Cheon · Answer

Thanks for the reply, Jake! Out of curiosity, have you experienced any pain points or things that you want to see improved while using QuickBooks?

What are the technical(digital) tools do investors and(or) general contractors use?

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