Tips for finding the right accountant

[Lessley Dennington]

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie real estate investor focused on short-term rentals. I got my primary residence ready this year to work as an STR while I'm out of town, and it's been exciting to start getting experience as a host and to see firsthand how easy it is once you get everything set up.

However, I know tax season is coming and that it's important to have an accountant with experience working with real estate investors (and who preferably also invests themselves). However, I'm a little unsure of how to get started finding this type of accountant. I've always done my own taxes, so don't have any experience "interviewing" accountants to see whether they'll be a good fit. With that in mind, I'm hoping for some advice on:

1. How to find accountants with real estate experience.

2. The questions to ask when vetting potential accountants I find.

[Jonathan Davis]

I am a fairly new investor as well, and in 2021 my wife and I flipped one house sold our personal home and bought 3 rental properties, we were really nervous about taxes for this year. Our realtor invited us to a class at our local Keller Williams office to hear a CPA make a short 1 hour presentation on what agents and investors need to know about taxes. I was blown away! I made an appointment with him and he reviewed our 2020 returns and plugged in some numbers to see where we might end up this year and I was pleasantly surprised. More importantly, I didn't have to ask him many questions - he knew all of the questions to ask and his passion for helping his clients was obvious. Furthermore, he was an investor himself.

So, if I were you I would talk to other investors at a local meet up or ask your realtor if they represent or know investors that use a particular CPA in your area. From there use someone who is passionate about helping their clients grow their tax free wealth.

Hope this helps a little. Best of luck to you!