Which method for filing - organizing is better?

[Joseph McCrillis]

Method A-each prop and all its items together  

Prop 1 receipts

Prop 1 hoa

Prop 1 loan

Prop 1 tenants 

Prop 1 etc. 

OR 

Method B- All common items from all props together

Prop 1 hoa

Prop 2 hoa

Prop 3 hoa 

Prop 1 loan

Prop 2 loan

Prop 3 loan

Prop 1 tenants

Prop 2 tenants

Prop 3 tenants 

[Scott M.]

Method U.  The one that U are willing to do and follow.  

[Joseph McCrillis]

@Scott M.

Organizing is not my forte and I'm going to try a new method as my current "method U sucks big time. Before I try both methods to see which one is better and/or more efficient I wanted to see what works for others. Your input was not helpful.

[Nathan Gesner]

Organizing is important. This is what I do:

123 Straight St - Fourplex
  - COMMON AREA
     - 2020-01-20 Inspection
     - 2020-06-21 Landscaping damage
     - 2020-07-10 Laundry room and hallway trashed
     - 2020-07-30 Laundry room and hallway painted and cleaned
     - 2020-10-06 Inspection
  - UNIT A
     - 2020-01-20 First marketing pictures
     - 2020-02-01 Johnson-Smith move in
     - 2020-07-10 Johnson-Smith inspection
     - 2021-01-29 Johnson-Smith out
     - 2021-02-15 Jacobs move in
  - UNIT B
  - UNIT C

2965 Narrow Way Ave - SFH
  - 2016-06-01 First marketing pictures
  - 2016-07-05 Walker moves in
  - 2016-10-01 Inspection and violations
  - 2016-10-15 Inspection and corrected violations
  - 2016-12-06 Walker abandoned
  - 2017-01-20 After renovations
  - 2017-02-10 Owens-Kirkhoff move in

The problem with the method above is there's no clear structure for documents, so you may want to try something different:

PROPERTY
   - UNIT A
      - PHOTOS
         2020-01-02 After renovation and marketing
         2020-02-15 Smith before move-in
         2020-06-10 Dog damage to lawn
      - DOCUMENTS
      - LEASES
         - JOHN AND PATTY SMITH
         - JANE DOE AND ROBERT BLACKWELL

I probably prefer this option over the former for a small landlord. Keep pictures in one folder. Lease documents stay in the lease folder. Property documents stay in the property documents folder.

The best thing you can do is sit down and think about what items you'll be organizing and think the process through. Avoid making it too complicated because you don't want to dig through 16 layers. If it's not user friendly, you won't use it.

[Scott M.]

@Joseph McCrillis all depends on how you look at the advice given.  Clearly you have chosen to look at it in a very negative way, no worries.

Your question is highly personal, and even if you got 5 people who all agreed Option B was better for them it doesn't matter.  Which one of the two plans are you willing to follow?  Which one of the two plans fit your brain better?

If you are not sure, I would suggest trying both and see what one fits, which is easier for you etc?

Point is, regardless of what works for others, getting organized requires your brains buy off.  

Either way, wish you the best on your journey!  

[David M.]

@Joseph McCrillis

Are you doing all paper?

Anyway, I find it generally easier to track by property, then by tenant.  So, make a folder of the property details/transcations, i.e. the purchase, the loan, hoa if any, Title, Title insurance policy.  Basically all stuff that is important, but you won't be looking up on a day to day or really on a year to year basis.  That goes to the "back of the cabinet"  Then, keep a folder of receipts/bills separate for each property.  For paper, if you have a lot for some reason then separate by year.  Then, have one folder per tenant.  

Does that help?

[Joe Splitrock]

We used to use separate folders for everything, but we merged our receipts together at the beginning of 2021. Each receipt gets a number assigned to it. Today would be 202201AAA, where the AAA is next number in the series. When we log the expense in our spreadsheet with the property address, we reference the receipt number. One folder for receipts, all organized in numerical order so any receipt can be found easily. We also moved to digital images for receipts, although we still file hard copies. All of our receipts are backed up to the cloud.

Each property has two file folders:
Legal - This is all mortgage, title and insurance documents
General - This is leases, applications, rent increase letters, violations, etc.

I am a fan of using the KISS method with anything we do. Keep It Simple Stupid. Reducing complexity saves time and cuts down on errors.

[Ed Tamayo]

@Joseph McCrillis

I would advise against B.

The possible number of different kind of documents is just too many.

For wat it’s worth. This is what i do.

I keep everything digital.

I don’t rent but I have over 20 properties right now so my first level of folders is the county, I then have a folder for each property

And for each property i have

Buying

Legal

Rehabbing

Selling

Photos

Surveys

Receipts

[Alex Forest]

@Joseph McCrillis 

Property A (main folder) Each below are subfolders within:

1_ Leases

2_Business LLC_Legal_Loan docs

3_Rental Analysis

4_Repair_Maint

5_ Listings

6_Pics

Repeat for each property.

#1 then has subfolders for each year. #3 has become a folder to do periodic rental rate analysis checks over time. I log past rates for comparison over time; I also like to check in on the same certain other properties to see how they have changed over time (if listed on a website).  #5 has each time its been listed with subfolder dated, the posting, stats, Applications, notes, etc.  Once the Applicant becomes a tenant, they move to folder #1.  

[Carini Rochester]

Each property organized separately from the other properties. 

Because . . .

tax forms require it to be reported for each property. (Like each property is its own separate business.)