Looking for an affordable but good bookkeeper in my area

Member since 2019 · 1 post · 3 votes

Good Evening and Happy New Year! I was wondering if anyone knows of a good bookkeeper that can help me get my 2023 books in order and maintain my 2024 books? I am in the state of MA but have properties in Ma, GA and SC. My properties are STR and Mid-terms, so it would be great if this person has experience/knowledge with STR.

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Michael PlaksPro Member

Tax Accountant / Enrolled Agent · Houston, TX · Member since 2014 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes

My response is not in the spirit of the new year festivities, and for that I apologize.

Be careful how you measure "affordable" bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is an intermediate step in handling your finances. The step that matters is the step that follows bookkeeping which is either tax preparation or applying for a loan.

Cheap bookkeeping may feel great temporarily - until you realize that you frugalled yourself out of a loan or that you overpay the IRS or that your CPA will have to charge you twice the usual amount because they have to adjust or redo your books.

Also, hourly rate for bookkeeping is meaningless when you do not know how many hours will be involved.

No, I do not offer bookkeeping. But I do taxes, so I see the sad results of investors trying to "save" on bookkeeping. Bookkeeping for real estate, and for STRs in particular, is highly complex and it will not be cheap if done right.

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Account Closed
Investor · Member since 2023 · 118 posts · 61 votes
2y
Quote from @Brenda Hernandez:

Good Evening and Happy New Year! I was wondering if anyone knows of a good bookkeeper that can help me get my 2023 books in order and maintain my 2024 books? I am in the state of MA but have properties in Ma, GA and SC. My properties are STR and Mid-terms, so it would be great if this person has experience/knowledge with STR.

Here is a website for finding Quickbooks ProAdvisors in your area.
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Michael PlaksPro Member
Tax Accountant / Enrolled Agent · Houston, TX · Member since 2014 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes
2y
My response is not in the spirit of the new year festivities, and for that I apologize.
Be careful how you measure "affordable" bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is an intermediate step in handling your finances. The step that matters is the step that follows bookkeeping which is either tax preparation or applying for a loan.
Cheap bookkeeping may feel great temporarily - until you realize that you frugalled yourself out of a loan or that you overpay the IRS or that your CPA will have to charge you twice the usual amount because they have to adjust or redo your books.

Also, hourly rate for bookkeeping is meaningless when you do not know how many hours will be involved.

No, I do not offer bookkeeping. But I do taxes, so I see the sad results of investors trying to "save" on bookkeeping. Bookkeeping for real estate, and for STRs in particular, is highly complex and it will not be cheap if done right.
4 Reply
Nate MeekerBusiness Member
Real Estate CPA | California · Member since 2020 · 543 posts · 251 votes
2y
@Brenda Hernandez - I recommend @Jake Baker. Not only does he do bookkeeping, but he also invests so he knows what the challenges are inside and out.
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Michael PlaksPro Member
Tax Accountant / Enrolled Agent · Houston, TX · Member since 2014 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes
2y
Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Brenda Hernandez:

Good Evening and Happy New Year! I was wondering if anyone knows of a good bookkeeper that can help me get my 2023 books in order and maintain my 2024 books? I am in the state of MA but have properties in Ma, GA and SC. My properties are STR and Mid-terms, so it would be great if this person has experience/knowledge with STR.

Here is a website for finding Quickbooks ProAdvisors in your area.

Being a QuickBooks ProAdvisor only ensures some level of proficiency with QuickBooks software. It does not ensure understanding of real estate bookkeeping.

Most ProAdvisors do not even speak investor language. Call people on this list and mention "subject-to" or "hard money" or "cost segregation" and see if they heard these terms.
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Evan Tuuk
Member since 2021 · 32 posts · 13 votes
2y
Quote from @Michael Plaks:

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Brenda Hernandez:

Good Evening and Happy New Year! I was wondering if anyone knows of a good bookkeeper that can help me get my 2023 books in order and maintain my 2024 books? I am in the state of MA but have properties in Ma, GA and SC. My properties are STR and Mid-terms, so it would be great if this person has experience/knowledge with STR.

Here is a website for finding Quickbooks ProAdvisors in your area.

Being a QuickBooks ProAdvisor only ensures some level of proficiency with QuickBooks software. It does not ensure understanding of real estate bookkeeping.

Most ProAdvisors do not even speak investor language. Call people on this list and mention "subject-to" or "hard money" or "cost segregation" and see if they heard these terms.

As a bookkeeper that niches in real estate and invests myself, I completely agree with @Michael Plaks. ProAdvisor is a software training, not bookkeeping. And most bookkeepers don't understand real estate at all. MTR and STRs have a lot going on and are more complex than LTRs. To maximize your deductions and understand your profitability you need 100% accurate books for your accountant/CFO/advisors. Happy to help if I can, but most of all hope you find the perfect fit for you and your business!

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Bonnie LowPro Member
Lender · Asheville, NC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
2y
I know you said you're looking for an affordable bookkeeper, but I wanted to suggest you take a look at Baselane if you want to take a more DIY approach (no, I'm not affiliated with them but have started using it myself). It is very well suited to real estate investing. That's their whole focus. You can set up bank accounts for every property and sub accounts within that for things like deposits or specific expenses. It uses AI to recognize and categorize your expenditures and income grouped into tax filing categories, provides you with P&L statements and has a lot more features. I just took over bookeeping from our long time bookeeper who has been charging us an arm and a leg and it's been surprisingly simple. So if you don't find a bookkeeper you like, consider looking into Baselane.
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Account Closed
Investor · Member since 2023 · 118 posts · 61 votes
2y
Quote from @Michael Plaks:

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Brenda Hernandez:

Good Evening and Happy New Year! I was wondering if anyone knows of a good bookkeeper that can help me get my 2023 books in order and maintain my 2024 books? I am in the state of MA but have properties in Ma, GA and SC. My properties are STR and Mid-terms, so it would be great if this person has experience/knowledge with STR.

Here is a website for finding Quickbooks ProAdvisors in your area.

Being a QuickBooks ProAdvisor only ensures some level of proficiency with QuickBooks software. It does not ensure understanding of real estate bookkeeping.

Most ProAdvisors do not even speak investor language. Call people on this list and mention "subject-to" or "hard money" or "cost segregation" and see if they heard these terms.

Totally agree the ProAdvisor website does not ensure understanding of real estate bookkeeping, and that asking industry specific questions is important no matter where you start looking...good point!
1 Reply
Todd Lennig
Accountant · NY · Member since 2019 · 99 posts · 69 votes
2y
@Brenda Hernandez. Happy to speak with you about what we can do for you. We niche in bookkeeping for real estate investors.
1 Reply
Basit SiddiqiBusiness Member
Accountant · New York, NY · Member since 2015 · 8k+ posts · 3k+ votes
2y
Is this an entity that you are looking to have the books done for?

If there is no entity, did you create a separate bank account / credit card just for your rental related activities?
If you did not, and all your personal / rental activities are within the same account, the books may be difficult to so as one would first need to determine what is business vs personal.
[email protected]917-280-8544
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Jake BakerBusiness Member
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2020 · 1k+ posts · 695 votes
2y
Thanks for the shoutout @Nate Meeker

I agree with @Michael Plaks that bookkeeping is an intermediate step in your real estate journey. There are many things to be wary of when hiring a bookkeeper. I recommend finding one with a monthly flat rate and agreed-upon monthly/yearly deliverables.
The best tax saving strategy - Good bookkeeping
Would be happy to discuss more and at least point you in the right direction. Sent you a PM.
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Kory Reynolds
Accountant · NH · Member since 2019 · 269 posts · 288 votes
2y
Bookkeeping can be done remotely, so you can broaden your search nation wide, or even international.
My experience is that it has been incredibly difficult for clients to find a good bookkeeper, and when you find a really good one, they will not be anywhere near the cheapest. Even then a lot of the really good ones let themselves get overbooked, so the flow of information tends to slow down.
A starting trend is I have a few real estate investor clients going overseas - there are more than a few larger and reputable firms in India offering bookkeeping services to US companies, typically on QuickBooks Online, and typically much cheaper than US rates. At least in the relatively small sample size I have seen, the clients I have using them (represents about 40 entities between 3 clients), they do good and prompt work, and are good at coordinating with the CPA to ensure they get the reporting right for each type of property. That said, it comes with it's own issues of time zone differences, communication and cultural differences, etc, but overall from my perspective I would rate it as a positive experience so far.
Bookkeeping is incredibly important since it is the foundation of your tax reporting, your investor reporting, analysis of the performance of your investments - it isn't something to skimp on.
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Sean O'KeefePro Member
CPA | Accepting new clients | 50 States · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 870 votes
2y
@Kory Reynolds helpful, thank you
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Max Emory
Accountant · 100% Remote · Member since 2019 · 495 posts · 216 votes
2y
Hey @Brenda Hernandez, Happy New Year!

I own a cloud-based bookkeeping firm that specializes in serving real estate investors. We're real estate investor owned and veteran owned; and, we're 100% remote.

We don't currently have any Clients in MA but we have Clients all over the country. We use QuickBooks Online for all of our Clients and are familiar with the common REI PM software our Clients use (Appfolio, Buildium, DoorLoop, etc etc).

We have relationships with some great CPA teams for the tax strategy/tax filing portion of your equation if you don't currently have those positions on your team filled. (one of them being @Michael Plaks)

If you have other specific questions I'm here to help just like everyone else who has commented in this thread. There are a lot of great bookkeepers and accountants in this community!

I hope this helps!
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Gita FaustBusiness Member
Accountant · Richboro - Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2008 · 901 posts · 246 votes
2y
Quote from @Michael Plaks:

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Brenda Hernandez:

Good Evening and Happy New Year! I was wondering if anyone knows of a good bookkeeper that can help me get my 2023 books in order and maintain my 2024 books? I am in the state of MA but have properties in Ma, GA and SC. My properties are STR and Mid-terms, so it would be great if this person has experience/knowledge with STR.

Here is a website for finding Quickbooks ProAdvisors in your area.

Being a QuickBooks ProAdvisor only ensures some level of proficiency with QuickBooks software. It does not ensure understanding of real estate bookkeeping.

Most ProAdvisors do not even speak investor language. Call people on this list and mention "subject-to" or "hard money" or "cost segregation" and see if they heard these terms.

That is where we come in - educated in accounting and auditing, as in investors know real estate accounting in and out and know different software entirely.
0 Reply
Bruce WoodruffPro Member
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
2y
Remember the old saying -
"You can have Good, Fast, and Cheap. But you only get to pick two"
0 Reply
Michael PlaksPro Member
Tax Accountant / Enrolled Agent · Houston, TX · Member since 2014 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes
2y
Since I do not offer bookkeeping services, I do not compete with anybody on this thread.
So I have no personal benefit from mentioning this: offering your own services is prohibited by BiggerPockets rules. Nobody is allowed to post "Pick me!" and nobody is allowed to send a private message to an investor offering services, either.
0 Reply
Markus Shobe
Accountant · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2019 · 247 posts · 134 votes
2y
What do you mean by affordable bookkeeping? Everybody's definition of affordable is different. Some may consider $700 a month affordable and others may not. A good bookkeeper in the long run is going to save you money. There are a lot of good bookkeepers here on BP as you want not just a normal bookkeeper but one that specializes in real estate.
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Simon W.Business Member
Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 660 votes
2y
To add to Markus, no one can give you a flat rate without actually reviewing some stuff. Every client has different wants and needs. If you have a few things to do, maybe it will cost $300 for roughly 1-2 hours of work. If you have a lot more things going on and need this person do record acquisition, dispositions, closing on loans and refi, well it might cost $1000-$3000.
It depends. STR is very time consuming because I have a client that has multiple properties in different States and is in the STR business. It all depends what is needed.
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