Playing with the idea of RE Accounting

Matt Bob · 2023-03-14T23:37:40-07:00

I have done tax prep for 7 years and the rentals are always a low value, high input tax return. The client thinks bringing in a wad of receipts is legit and you're stuck categorizing everything in excel while thinking about how much trouble you'll be in for spending too much time on the return (like you wanted to). The clients almost never bring everything in, which tells me they don't really know what's happening with their investments. I am playing with the idea of starting my own business where I categorize rental properties monthly and POTENTIALLY prep the tax return at year end as well. I could also help prepare Personal FS's. If I didn't do the tax return, then the CPA would just have to 10-key things in in a matter of seconds.Is there a need for this In the rental business where investors would be willing to pay? Thanks in advance.

Alex Pelletier

Member since 2022 · 47 posts · 47 votes

3y

Quote from @Matt Bob:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

Quote from @Matt Bob:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

I would be hesitant to pay you for one tax service and a CPA for another. It would be cleaner for me to pay one person to do it all if I could find that. But I might be in the minority; I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

I can clearly hear prospdcts saying this. Thanks for the feedback! I guess to be a little clearer, I would be creating monthly FS's that the cpa would just punch into their software. I would easily be able to provide all of the support for how I created the numbers as well.

The thing is with rentals, owners do not track things well, so as tax preparers we literally just go with whatever we're given. If it looks similar to last year, then it passes our sniff test. That catches things like insurance or mortgage interest, but not the 1-time purchases. I actually had a client that randomly brought in a $5k insulation invoice because I asked about a refund (completely different things).

If I created FS's and reconciled like the large investors do, this would be virtually impossible, and a much better product than the cpa firms can create.

I'm not sure how I would market this understanding without one-on-one meetings that I would need to quit my job to have... all in the hope people would see the benefit of paying for a service versus pulling their hair out at year end tax time.

I understand what you want to do and see the value, but if there's anyone out there will to both organize financials AND complete the tax return, the client is more likely to go with them. If they aren't organizing their financials after a year or two of doing this, they likely don't care about any extra fees from their CPA for the time spent organizing financials.

Thanks for the feedback. I watched a couple videos on AZIBO as mentioned above and it appears to be a dumbed down but cluttered up version of QB's in some ways. I think most investors want something easier to use, BUT I also noticed they couldn't break 3k views on Youtube, further emphasizing a lack on investor interest.

I suspect I am stuck in tax preparation services for a while longer.

Hey Cliff,

Thanks for taking a look at some of the Azibo videos on accounting (this is a brand new set of features we have yet to start advertising!). Azibo is completely free to test, and someone from our team is willing to give you a full demo or help with onboarding if you want to check us out.

We're confident that Azibo will make it easy to go from setup to tax-ready reports in just a couple of hours-- feel free to shoot me a DM if you have any questions at all

Disclaimer: I'm part of the Azibo team :)

1 Reply

Matt Bob

OP

Member since 2023 · 14 posts · 2 votes

3y

Quote from @Alex Pelletier:

Quote from @Matt Bob:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

Quote from @Matt Bob:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

I would be hesitant to pay you for one tax service and a CPA for another. It would be cleaner for me to pay one person to do it all if I could find that. But I might be in the minority; I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

I can clearly hear prospdcts saying this. Thanks for the feedback! I guess to be a little clearer, I would be creating monthly FS's that the cpa would just punch into their software. I would easily be able to provide all of the support for how I created the numbers as well.

The thing is with rentals, owners do not track things well, so as tax preparers we literally just go with whatever we're given. If it looks similar to last year, then it passes our sniff test. That catches things like insurance or mortgage interest, but not the 1-time purchases. I actually had a client that randomly brought in a $5k insulation invoice because I asked about a refund (completely different things).

If I created FS's and reconciled like the large investors do, this would be virtually impossible, and a much better product than the cpa firms can create.

I'm not sure how I would market this understanding without one-on-one meetings that I would need to quit my job to have... all in the hope people would see the benefit of paying for a service versus pulling their hair out at year end tax time.

I understand what you want to do and see the value, but if there's anyone out there will to both organize financials AND complete the tax return, the client is more likely to go with them. If they aren't organizing their financials after a year or two of doing this, they likely don't care about any extra fees from their CPA for the time spent organizing financials.

Thanks for the feedback. I watched a couple videos on AZIBO as mentioned above and it appears to be a dumbed down but cluttered up version of QB's in some ways. I think most investors want something easier to use, BUT I also noticed they couldn't break 3k views on Youtube, further emphasizing a lack on investor interest.

I suspect I am stuck in tax preparation services for a while longer.

Hey Cliff,

Thanks for taking a look at some of the Azibo videos on accounting (this is a brand new set of features we have yet to start advertising!). Azibo is completely free to test, and someone from our team is willing to give you a full demo or help with onboarding if you want to check us out.

We're confident that Azibo will make it easy to go from setup to tax-ready reports in just a couple of hours-- feel free to shoot me a DM if you have any questions at all

Disclaimer: I'm part of the Azibo team :)

Hi Alex, it's Matt, but you can me whatever you like... as long as it's not Late to Dinner.

Need an accountant on your team? 😀

0 Reply

Alex Pelletier

Member since 2022 · 47 posts · 47 votes

3y

Quote from @Matt Bob:

Quote from @Alex Pelletier:

Quote from @Matt Bob:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

Quote from @Matt Bob:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

I would be hesitant to pay you for one tax service and a CPA for another. It would be cleaner for me to pay one person to do it all if I could find that. But I might be in the minority; I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

I can clearly hear prospdcts saying this. Thanks for the feedback! I guess to be a little clearer, I would be creating monthly FS's that the cpa would just punch into their software. I would easily be able to provide all of the support for how I created the numbers as well.

The thing is with rentals, owners do not track things well, so as tax preparers we literally just go with whatever we're given. If it looks similar to last year, then it passes our sniff test. That catches things like insurance or mortgage interest, but not the 1-time purchases. I actually had a client that randomly brought in a $5k insulation invoice because I asked about a refund (completely different things).

If I created FS's and reconciled like the large investors do, this would be virtually impossible, and a much better product than the cpa firms can create.

I'm not sure how I would market this understanding without one-on-one meetings that I would need to quit my job to have... all in the hope people would see the benefit of paying for a service versus pulling their hair out at year end tax time.

I understand what you want to do and see the value, but if there's anyone out there will to both organize financials AND complete the tax return, the client is more likely to go with them. If they aren't organizing their financials after a year or two of doing this, they likely don't care about any extra fees from their CPA for the time spent organizing financials.

Thanks for the feedback. I watched a couple videos on AZIBO as mentioned above and it appears to be a dumbed down but cluttered up version of QB's in some ways. I think most investors want something easier to use, BUT I also noticed they couldn't break 3k views on Youtube, further emphasizing a lack on investor interest.

I suspect I am stuck in tax preparation services for a while longer.

Hey Cliff,

Thanks for taking a look at some of the Azibo videos on accounting (this is a brand new set of features we have yet to start advertising!). Azibo is completely free to test, and someone from our team is willing to give you a full demo or help with onboarding if you want to check us out.

We're confident that Azibo will make it easy to go from setup to tax-ready reports in just a couple of hours-- feel free to shoot me a DM if you have any questions at all

Disclaimer: I'm part of the Azibo team :)

Hi Alex, it's Matt, but you can me whatever you like... as long as it's not Late to Dinner.

Need an accountant on your team? 😀

Oof, that's embarrassing. Sorry about that, Matt!

We have a major CPA partner today who helped us make the reports, but we definitely would love to chat with CPAs to make Azibo the best product possible for both rental owners and those who do the taxes for them. Feel free to message me if you'd like to chat further!

1 Reply

Vicki X.Pro Member

Investor · Member since 2022 · 186 posts · 155 votes

3y

Quote from @Matt Bob:

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

I would be hesitant to pay you for one tax service and a CPA for another. It would be cleaner for me to pay one person to do it all if I could find that. But I might be in the minority; I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

I can clearly hear prospdcts saying this. Thanks for the feedback! I guess to be a little clearer, I would be creating monthly FS's that the cpa would just punch into their software. I would easily be able to provide all of the support for how I created the numbers as well.

The thing is with rentals, owners do not track things well, so as tax preparers we literally just go with whatever we're given. If it looks similar to last year, then it passes our sniff test. That catches things like insurance or mortgage interest, but not the 1-time purchases. I actually had a client that randomly brought in a $5k insulation invoice because I asked about a refund (completely different things).

If I created FS's and reconciled like the large investors do, this would be virtually impossible, and a much better product than the cpa firms can create.

I'm not sure how I would market this understanding without one-on-one meetings that I would need to quit my job to have... all in the hope people would see the benefit of paying for a service versus pulling their hair out at year end tax time.

Hello Matt, I'm part of the Azibo team who's built Azibo Accounting tool on the basis of the pain points, oversights and potential losses you've described above. We were convinced that a better tool is needed to help both the RE investors and their CPAs. You highlighted that our video hasn't got many views -- another good observation! It's a new feature so we are yet to bring awareness to the broad audience. I'd love to chat with you to exchange ideas and get your feedback. Can we (and Alex) connect?

1 Reply

Playing with the idea of RE Accounting

Playing with the idea of RE Accounting

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