Has anyone use Rental Hero for bookkeeping?

Tax, SDIRAs & Cost Segregation
7yFollow

Has anyone use Rental Hero for bookkeeping?

Eric ChappellPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2017 · 24 posts · 18 votes

I have been trying to research the least expensive way to keep my records until I build my real estate rentals more.  I tried to set up quickbooks online, but without paying $720 a year for the ability to do class tracking, it seems like it wouldn't be as beneficial.

I know there are other tools out there more geared towards real estate like xero, etc, but I'm still trying to avoid paying so much every month.

Has anybody used realtyzam or rentalhero (rentalhero.io) they seem to be linked?  It seems like it could be geared towards my needs, but I see no mention of it anywhere.  Maybe it's just a small company.

1Reply
205 views

Most Popular Reply

Jeff Nishimura
Rental Property Investor · Thunder Bay, ON · Member since 2018 · 13 posts · 3 votes
6y

Just started the free trial of Rentalhero and it looks like it will be able to cover everything I need for my 2 small MF properties. For all the features provided with the current price, I've got my fingers crossed that it will work.

2Reply
See this reply in the discussion

35 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Ben DayBusiness Member
    Accountant · Oklahoma City · Member since 2017 · 80 posts · 64 votes
    7y

    Hey @Eric Chappell  

    You've absolutely nailed it - "class tracking" or the equivalent somewhere else is usually a top dollar feature.

    I haven't used rentalhero (yet, thanks for the tip!) but generally - new accounting and property tracking softwares fall short in one of two places: 

    1) they don't actually generate financial statements that a CPA or Lender will approve, or 
    2) They can, but the learning curve is so steep or convoluted it's impossible for you to get help if/when you need it (I imagine this is why this thread is a little slow right now)

    Have you asked your accountant what they think will work best? Select accounting and bookkeeping firms have access to software like Quickbooks Online at a discount, and a few of them even pass those discounts along directly to the customer! 

    Food for thought. Good luck! 

    Lionshare Bookkeeping LLC
    WebsiteView Page
    1Reply
  • Simon W.Business Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 668 votes
    7y

    @Eric Chappell - just started a trial to check on rentalhero and it's not a complete accounting system. It does not generate the Balance Sheet. This is essential for lenders or CPA.

    Accounting Properties LLC
    View Page
    CFO LLC
    View Page
    2Reply
  • Eric ChappellPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2017 · 24 posts · 18 votes
    7y

    Thank you both for your responses.  I started a trial as well, but haven't had much time to tinker around yet.

    0Reply
  • Simon W.Business Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 668 votes
    7y

    What is your budget for accounting for the year?

    Accounting Properties LLC
    View Page
    CFO LLC
    View Page
    0Reply
  • Eric ChappellPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2017 · 24 posts · 18 votes
    7y

    Well, for software, I would like to stay under $300.  Now that I've had a bit of time to put in some info into rental hero, under the "profit and loss" section, you can save/print a PDF with details.  This did formulate a table of income and expenses and I had the option to include receipts I uploaded for those income and expense transactions.  I would imagine this would be close to a balance sheet.

    I'm not sure what my CPA would want, but that looked pretty inclusive since I categorized my transactions into their respective categories, ie property management, and repairs.

    0Reply
  • Simon W.Business Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 668 votes
    7y

    @Eric Chappell Income Statement is nowhere close to a Balance Sheet. Only thing the Income Statement info would be the retained earnings on the Balance Sheet. Balance Sheet shows all Assets, Liability, and Equity.

    Accounting Properties LLC
    View Page
    CFO LLC
    View Page
    1Reply
  • Caleb Heimsoth
    Rental Property Investor · Durham, NC · Member since 2016 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes
    7y
    @Eric Chappell. How many properties do you have? If it’s less than 5-7 just use excel.
    1Reply
  • Basit SiddiqiBusiness Member
    Accountant · New York, NY · Member since 2015 · 8k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    7y

    @Eric Chappell

    If you don't have many properties and are comfortable using excel; I would use excel. 
    Most banks allow you to export the full year of activity to excel.

    If you are not comfortable using excel - you should reach out to your accountant if he/she has a bookkeeper on staff and how much it would cost them to do your books.

    It may be cheaper overall for your accountant to do it if you just need the books to be done once a year instead of on a monthly basis.
    Furthermore, this saves you from having to pay for the software.

    [email protected]917-280-8544
    Basit Siddiqi CPA4.979 Reviews
    View Page
    0Reply
  • Eric ChappellPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2017 · 24 posts · 18 votes
    7y

    Basit,

    I wouldn't need it done on a monthly, but I am just trying to get organized in general.  I have thought about a bookkeeper, but then I feel like it would end up costing just as much as buying the more expensive tax software.

    1Reply
  • Eric ChappellPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2017 · 24 posts · 18 votes
    7y

    Caleb,

    I have 3 properties now.  I had generally been just saving my expenses in google sheets to further organize later and receipts in google drive since I can more easily access and upload all my paperwork from my phone and access my drive from anywhere.

    I have and use excel for some things, but I generally would prefer something more geared towards real estate.  I have done a lot more on rental hero now and I'm finding it very easy to use and it is very organized.  We'll see.

    Thanks,

    Eric

    0Reply
  • Eric ChappellPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2017 · 24 posts · 18 votes
    7y

    UPDATE:

    I have been putting my data into this rental hero software for a while now and I absolutely love it.  I have a business google pixelbook, which doesn't use windows or mac os, so it is important that I have the ability to use some form of online access (remote login to pc or mac...or actual online software).  

    I use google drive for all my scanned business files, so I can easily upload my receipts for transactions/expenses.  You can print out a CPA sheet that can break down every transaction (with receipts if you want - so you just upload it once when you're entering data and you're solid)

    You have the equivalent of class tracking because you can enter each rental or unit separately.  You have the option of a single family unit or multifamily, etc when starting a new rental.  You can add notes to any transaction also, so later if you want to search for a vendor (you gas company, insurance) you can search by the actual vendor or something you put in your notes.  It has a great search option.

    I like how visually organized the software is.  You get a pie chart of income and expense breakdowns and then you can open up the bullets to the expense or income categories and it is further broken down as far as you have decided to enter categories for your data.

    Best I found is, this was a 30 day free trial and I just looked to check, it is currently listed as $119 a year.  That's pretty nice.  It blows quickbooks out of the water with ease of use and I can do the class tracking that the basic $20 a month quickbooks was lacking.

    There's a phone app also, I just added it to my phone, so I'm not sure how much I will use it yet other than for reference as opposed to opening the website for details.  I like to use my computer to upload and organize my receipts typically, but that is because I typically have "scanned" receipts to my google drive from my phone camera.  I will still do that for keeping my records straight, but I'll try to work with the app a bit and see how easy it is to pull receipts etc.

    I thought an update was warranted because I really like the software and the PRICE.

    Eric

    7Reply
  • Todd Bowen
    Rental Property Investor · Spring Lake, MI · Member since 2017 · 48 posts · 23 votes
    7y

    Eric,

    I just finished my free trial with Rental Hero and liked it so much I paid for the annual subscription.  It is simple to use and was just what I needed to keep track of my 5 properties (10 units).  Maybe in the future they will add the ability to create a balance sheet which could be beneficial. 

    2Reply
  • Eric ChappellPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2017 · 24 posts · 18 votes
    7y

    Hey Todd,

    Their customer service is very receptive. I asked for an option and they added it. I got an email to let me know they updated the software. Try to email them with what you want. 

    Eric

    1Reply
  • Mike DeWitt
    Rental Property Investor · Rockwall, TX · Member since 2018 · 10 posts · 5 votes
    7y

    My fiance and I started using rental hero once we acquired our second property. It's pretty simple to use and gives you an overall picture of your situation, along with individual breakdowns. For people who are not super accounting-savvy like us, I would definitely recommend it. 

    0Reply
  • Connor Heim
    College Station, TX · Member since 2016 · 89 posts · 73 votes
    7y

    I just signed up for the free trial.  I had been using Stessa, which I really loved, but it is buggy and the banking connection to Chase was continually breaking, which I needed to re-connect, but when I did that I had to go through 200+ transactions and re-allocate the expenses.  This happened multiple times.... so I'm done with them.

    Hoping Rental Hero does the trick!

    1Reply
  • Pavan Mediratta
    Rental Property Investor · Sarasota, FL · Member since 2017 · 23 posts · 23 votes
    7y

    @Eric Chappell can confirm. I just upgraded from the free trial to full sub of rentalhero.io to manage 7 properties with room to grow. No more excel to help scale!

    1Reply
  • Account Closed
    Mandan, ND · Member since 2017 · 42 posts · 64 votes
    7y

    Have being using Rental Hero for a year now and I absolutely love it. My CPA had no issues using the Info from there to do my taxes. Highly recommended

    1Reply
  • Rigo V.
    Investor · Morris Plains, NJ · Member since 2017 · 294 posts · 47 votes
    7y

    @Eric Chappell this software does seem pretty cool. I just started using it based on this thread. Wondering how you are handling reserves? 

    0Reply
  • Account Closed
    Mandan, ND · Member since 2017 · 42 posts · 64 votes
    7y

    I would also highly recommend Rentalhero, being using it for a year now and I absolutely love it so does my CPA

    0Reply
  • Todd M.
    Real Estate Investor · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2008 · 37 posts · 7 votes
    6y

    I'm on the RentalHero trial right now and coming from Quickbooks at $70 / month for only 2 properties.  So far I'm really liking RentalHero and hope it could work for me.  That's some serious monthly savings.  


    But, from this thread above, I'm wondering if not having Balance Sheet a big deal?  Or, is there a manual workaround like keeping track in a Google Sheet or Excel?  

    1Reply
  • David Wollock
    Member since 2019 · 1 post · 1 vote
    6y

    I just signed up for Rental Hero too, I like it so far. Based on the thread above, I sent my accountant the Profit & loss sheet and she said that was all I needed. And she said I didn't need a balance sheet for either of them, at least not for my taxes. I only have 2 properties, and each is in a separate LLC. Not sure if this will help anyone else.

    1Reply
  • Ed B.
    Real Estate Investor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2010 · 298 posts · 103 votes
    6y

    I've used Quicken to keep track of 14 properties for years and  it does everything I need, even balance sheets. It's a one time purchase,  not ongoing monthly or yearly.

    1Reply
  • Jeff Nishimura
    Rental Property Investor · Thunder Bay, ON · Member since 2018 · 13 posts · 3 votes
    6y

    Just started the free trial of Rentalhero and it looks like it will be able to cover everything I need for my 2 small MF properties. For all the features provided with the current price, I've got my fingers crossed that it will work.

    2Reply
  • Greg O'BrienBusiness Member
    Accountant · Boston, MA · Member since 2019 · 386 posts · 336 votes
    6y

    A lot of questions around a balance sheet.  As a CPA, I would strongly advise you have a balance sheet kept, somewhere.  You could run into issues down the line without one, depending on your business structure.  

    1Reply
  • Dee Heck
    Rental Property Investor · OH · Member since 2020 · 24 posts · 23 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Greg O'Brien:

    A lot of questions around a balance sheet.  As a CPA, I would strongly advise you have a balance sheet kept, somewhere.  You could run into issues down the line without one, depending on your business structure.  

    I am using Quickbooks for Mac 2019 and using the class feature and it is a beast to manage.  I am currently test driving Rental Hero. Could you elaborate on how not having a balance sheet would affect an 18 door SMLLC with no mortgages.  I really appreciate your input.

    1Reply
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.
Log InJoin for Free