CPA vs DO IT YOURSELF

[April White]

Hello Everyone,

I just recently started a business this year to do LTR, and started fixing up a little house in the back of the property as well but ran into plumbing and electrical issues that cost more than expected (already in the hole by $5k prior to plumbing & electrical) while I was trying to get the main house rented. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a qualified tenant through my property manager for 6 months so I fired the property manager to decided to furnish the home as a STR for roughly $2800. I started my STR in Aug 2018 and it's currently bringing in $1800-2200/month (will most likely increase as I reach super host status and increase my rate giving me closer $3k compared to current) but I'm still negative in cash flow by $400. If I didn't run into issues with the little house I was going to rent it out for $900 a month furnished.

Now my question. Prior to starting my business  I did my taxes myself via TurboTax and never had a problem. I hear a lot of investors use CPA, but if you can’t afford a CPA what would be the best route to take to file your taxes?

I already know I need to do a  1120, and a 2553 to try and get an S Corp. election (I know usually bigger companies use this but I plan to expand and it would be nice to already have everything in place) but my biggest concern is the write offs for starting a new business, net loss, and whatever else can be deducted.

 Does anybody have any suggestions for my situation or can give testimony on what software they use other than a CPA?

Thanks!

April