Hello!

I'm a CPA who has spent 15+ years in real estate finance, and I'm trying to understand where investors feel the most pain on the accounting side, as I want to build a firm to solve those pain points.

I'd love to hear from you on what pains you most about your accounting work.

The way I think about it, accounting work falls into three buckets:

Bookkeeping: recording rent and expenses, paying bills, reconciling bank and credit card accounts, splitting loan payments into principal and interest, monthly P&L and balance sheet by property

Controller work: month-end close, cleaning up the books before tax time, handling multiple LLCs, budget vs. actual, lender reporting packages, tracking renovation costs

CFO-level work: tax planning with your CPA, buy/hold/sell decisions, deal underwriting, refinance analysis, cash flow forecasting, investor distributions/reporting

A few questions for you:

- Which of these do you handle yourself, and which do you pay someone for?

- Where do things fall apart most often? Is it the books getting behind, scrambling at tax time, a lender asking for something you can't produce quickly, or not knowing which property is really making money?

- If you've hired help, what did it cost and did you receive the value you expected? If it didn't work out, what was the primary reason?

- Is there something you wish you could hand off but haven't found the right person for?

I'd love hearing from this community, as I want to build services that solve pains and gaps in the marketplace for investors at different stages. If you'd also be willing to share your portfolio size and asset type (SFR, small multifamily, STR, commercial) that would help a lot too!

Thanks in advance!

Tricia

Lansing, Michigan