New "Portfolio Tracker" tool on BiggerPockets... and it's FREE!

Questions About BiggerPockets & Official Site Announcements
10yFollow

New "Portfolio Tracker" tool on BiggerPockets... and it's FREE!

Brandon TurnerPro Member
Investor · Maui, HI · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 3k+ votes

Hey folks!

We just released another awesome free tool (for everyone - Pro, Plus, and Free members!) to help you stay more organized as you build your real estate portfolio. 

It's called the  Portfolio Tracker and we'd love to have some members test it out and let us know what you think! 

The Basic Idea

We wanted to provide a simple, one-stop-shop page for those with a growing rental portfolio to track their net worth, as well as give users the ability to share a summary of their portfolio with lenders, partners, or others. 

Right now, the tool only tracks Rental Properties. If people find this tool valuable, perhaps we'll add a Flipping and Wholesale component as well. Thoughts?

Give it a try today by visiting  www.BiggerPockets.com/portfolio

How It Works

The portfolio tracker is super simple and intuitive, but here's some basic information on how to use it: 

1.) First, add a property by clicking the "add a new property" button on the bottom right. 

2.) Enter the purchase date, purchase price, current value, loan balance, and monthly cash flow. (The equity field will be calculated automatically.) 

3.) Edit any entry any time by simply clicking on any existing row. This way, you can update your portfolio regularly as the numbers change. 

4.) If so desired, print or share via email a PDF report of your portfolio any time by clicking either of the blue buttons on the upper right corner of the Portfolio Tracker. 

Can We Get Your Help? 

This product is currently in "beta" mode. This means we are still working on it, but need YOUR feedback to make it better! So if you are willing to test it out, play with it, enter your portfolio, etc ... and give us feedback, we'd really appreciate it!

Feel free to leave any comments here in this thread! For example: 

  • What do you like about it?
  • What don't you like about?
  • What needs improvement?
  • What is "unclear" about how it works? 
  • Any suggestions to make it better?
  • Did you notice any "bugs" or "quirks" that should be fixed?

Thank you, everyone! I hope you all enjoy this new tool!

-Brandon 

Podcast Guest on Show #92
12Reply
203 views

Most Popular Reply

Mike H.
Rental Property Investor · Manteno, IL · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
10y

If your intent is that investors would be showing this to a lender, then here is what I would throw out as some possible improvements.

1) Purchase date only goes back to 2010. Should go back further for people with portfolios that started before then.

2) Let me enter purchase date directly as an option. Its far quicker.

3)Instead of monthly cash flow as some number, allow me to enter:
a) Rent. 
b) Mortg payment, 
c) Taxes, 
d) Insurance 

And then calculate the monthly cashflow (i.e Gross monthly profit). Repairs, capex and vacancy are very subjective. Each lender will have their own ideas. Better to leave it blank and let each lender extrapolate their own numbers. But the amounts above are typically what they want to see.

4) Add a column for monthly principal paydown as well that can be entered as well. I think this is a vastly under-appreciated monthly income stream that real estate generates. And most lenders would be surprised at how quickly that adds up in terms of the returns....

5) Add current lender name and/or loan terms. It helps tracking the loans/balloon dates and also lets other lenders see that you're getting loans from other banks and what their terms are. Sometimes they might suggest refinancing existing loans over to them if they see some low hanging fruit......

6) And maybe a field for rehab amount. Some lenders like to see what your all-in price actually was on the house..... But I have only been asked that a couple of times so I don't typically track that on my homegrown schedule of real estate.

What I would say though is that this is really a great idea and I hope you guyscontinue moving forward with it. I'm curious to see what other fields some of the real pros on here also track and present to their lenders.

3Reply
See this reply in the discussion

43 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Rick Dig
    Rental Property Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2015 · 9 posts · 1 vote
    10y
    I am a new member of BP. I am interested in downloading the Portfolio tracker and it is not showing up when I search. What am I doing wrong. ?
    0Reply
  • Nicholas Spohn
    Rental Property Investor · Davenport, IA · Member since 2013 · 54 posts · 18 votes
    10y

    @Brandon Turner I use a portfolio summary sheet to give my lenders with all of this info as well, good tool. However one tool I use that I haven't seen is a "weighted average cost of capital"  worksheet. I input projected profit from each property and estimated market value as well as the interest rate. This tells me which mortgages to pay off first or refinance, and which properties to sell if I need to sell one. I should sell properties that have the lowest return on equity. I can also see the difference between the cost of equity for bringing in new partners, vs the cost of debt. If my interest payment is 5%, and the return on equity is 3% I should sell that property. If the return on equity is 15%, then I know when finding a partner that I would be giving up 10%: 15% minus 5%, my opportunity cost. 

    0Reply
  • Pete T.
    Real estate investor · Las Vegas · Member since 2013 · 798 posts · 171 votes
    10y

    I like to have a separate tab for each property so I can include repairs/improvements, their cost and date.  I would also like a further breakdown than cash flow as mentioned above.

    0Reply
  • Daniel Klebba
    Plymouth, MI · Member since 2015 · 33 posts · 5 votes
    10y

    It would be great if the portfolio was a living breathing document. Meaning it would be nice to be able to enter which month you are in with your mortgage (Ex: Month 4 of 360) and have the spreadsheet update every month to update your remaining balance owed and any potential changes in equity. I am sure you'd have to put in the loan info to have to make this work but it would be a great way to look at your investments and updated numbers at a glance.

    2Reply
  • Fay Chen
    Investor · Bothell, WA · Member since 2015 · 214 posts · 104 votes
    10y

    Brandon, here's a sample of what I built. It may be a little more elaborate than what you are looking to design. The "ACTUAL" column pulls numbers straight from my books so it's a "living" document. It's still a work in progress. I'm working on a table to track tenant/lease info. I made it in MS Access, so it'll be easy to add a summary report for the portfolio and net worth.

    1Reply
  • Nicole Shue
    Investor · Alexandria, VA · Member since 2015 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    10y

    Just discovered the portfolio today, kept me entertained at work!  Added my properties.  

    1. Agree with many that I'd like to be able to break out the details of the cash flow with rent, mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA and mgmt fees.

    2. Couldn't get the "Total" line to be anything other than 0, but every property is saved and is individually totaled.

    3. Would like to be able to eventually pull up years worth of data for each property, so in 2020 I can see how rents, taxes, etc have changed and how cash flow has (hopefully!) increased!

    4. Overall, great start and look forward to seeing the next iteration!

    1Reply
  • Max Shaw
    Investor · Fayetteville, AR · Member since 2014 · 24 posts · 21 votes
    10y

    This a great idea I keep something similar in Excel and share it with any new banks I meet with and they really find it helpful.

    What would be cool (this might be out there already), a few before me touched on this, is a snowball amortization section. Something that would calculate the loan amount left for each loan, do the amortization for you, and gave you the option of adding additional principle to the loan. Once the loan was paid off you could pick which other loan it would take the excess cash flow an add it to and so on . I have a crude version I created, but its not dynamic. I'm still in the acquisition phase of my business, so this isn't something I would use right away, but once I hit my targeted number of properties I would look to pay them off using this method.

    0Reply
  • Brandon TurnerPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Maui, HI · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    10y

    Hey everyone thanks so much for the continued help and suggestions and bug testing! We're working to add in a lot of these features in the coming weeks. If you have anything else, please keep the suggestions coming! :) 

    Podcast Guest on Show #92
    0Reply
  • Stephanie W.
    Rental Property Investor · Roanoke, VA · Member since 2011 · 95 posts · 65 votes
    10y

    Hey, Brandon, love the new spreadsheet... mine doesn't total, though. Using a Mac, Yosemite. Also, downloading PDF just gives me zeros. Love the concept, though.

    0Reply
  • Rick Dig
    Rental Property Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2015 · 9 posts · 1 vote
    10y

    Brandon 

    I love this product, great idea.    I agree with Mike H. If we could add some more fields such as who the loan is with and terms of the loan and when the loan is up.    Monthly taxes and insurance would be nice as well.     Thank you Rick 

    0Reply
  • Keith Boley
    Rental Property Investor · Lompoc, CA · Member since 2010 · 197 posts · 183 votes
    10y

    Thank you for this portfolio tool.  

    Easy to use, very helpful for quick view of portfolio.  As others have suggested, very helpful if it could total at the bottom. 

    Thank you 

    0Reply
  • Bon Osonwanne
    Investor · Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2016 · 46 posts · 12 votes
    9y

    I didn't really like the Portfolio Tracker tool, it's like an Excel spreadsheet. Checkout this better portfolio tracking web app: www.smallplex.com

    1Reply
  • Jack Forester
    Investor · Cumming, GA · Member since 2016 · 153 posts · 34 votes
    9y

    @Brandon Turner

    I've got my portfolio loaded, but I'm wondering, from the perspective of the bank, what do they want to see? Probably gross monthly income, debt service or PITI, and maybe monthly CapEx reserves? Debt to income ratio, maybe?

    Then maybe a pretty graph at the bottom?

    What do you think?

    0Reply
  • David Ferrette
    Developer · Austin, TX · Member since 2014 · 266 posts · 110 votes
    9y

    With the new BP layout, has this tool been removed?  I can't seem to find in on the site anywhere.

    0Reply
  • Mindy JensenPro Member
    BiggerPockets Money Podcast Host · Longmont, CO · Member since 2014 · 7k+ posts · 10k+ votes
    9y

    @David Ferrette, you can find it at www.BiggerPockets.com/portfolio

    [email protected]Podcast Guest on Show #261
    BiggerPockets
    2Reply
  • Nelson LealPro Member
    Aviation Sales / Investor · Pompano Beach, FL · Member since 2017 · 112 posts · 45 votes
    9y

    so is using the link

    www.BiggerPockets.com/portfolio

    the only way to get to the portfolio section?  I can't find the button/icon anywhere. 

    0Reply
  • Akin Okegbile
    Birmingham, AL · Member since 2017 · 39 posts · 26 votes
    4y

    @Brandon Turner This link has been disabled or the link is no longer working. This was one of my favorite features of the website.

    1Reply
  • Iliyan DinevPro Member
    Member since 2020 · 3 posts · 0 votes
    4y

    Hey, are you working to fix this? The link is no longer active.

    0Reply
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.
Log InJoin for Free