Investors who do their own Bookkeeping & Accounting

Investors who do their own Bookkeeping & Accounting

Rental Property Investor · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2024 · 50 posts · 43 votes

I'm new to the Bigger Pockets online community although listening to one Bigger Pockets podcast episode is what kicked off my original investing journey many years ago! I've been a full-time real estate investor since 2019 and have flipped hundreds of houses and currently own a 50+ SFH rental portfolio (including short-term & long-term rentals).

I'm also a CPA and love the accounting aspects of real estate, probably more than the real estate investing itself! We've managed to keep all of our accounting and bookkeeping in-house so I'd love to connect with more investors and to especially hear from those investors who are doing their own bookkeeping and accounting and any of your current struggles. Happy to try and help with any questions or find solutions to make things simpler :) 

1Reply
54 views

Most Popular Reply

Bonnie LowPro Member
Lender · Asheville, NC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
2y
Quote from @Nelisa Lee:
Quote from @Bonnie Low:

Hi, Nelisa. I have a small portfolio of LTRs, MTRs and one STR. Until about a year ago we were using a bookkeeper to manage our books in quickbooks. It was just too cumbersome for us to do ourselves. I had wanted to find something simpler for a long time. I also needed to set up some bank accounts for our LLCs so in the process of doing that I ran across Baselane, which is a banking and bookkeeping platform. I had looked at some others but I ended up going with Baselane because it gave me the combination of banking, bookkeeping and tenant management I was looking for. I'm very happy for it and (bonus!) I was able to let our bookkeeper go, saving over $500/mo in the process!


Glad you were able to find a solution that worked for you and to save a lot of money in the process! Quickbooks can be cumbersome to figure out so I get that. I've never heard of Baselane but it seems like it's geared more towards rental property owners. Do you also flip properties? 


Yes, I do. I've done flips, BRRRRs and buy and hold in the LTR and MTR spaces. Buy and hold for STR.

See this reply in the discussion

6 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Bonnie LowPro Member
    Lender · Asheville, NC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    2y

    Hi, Nelisa. I have a small portfolio of LTRs, MTRs and one STR. Until about a year ago we were using a bookkeeper to manage our books in quickbooks. It was just too cumbersome for us to do ourselves. I had wanted to find something simpler for a long time. I also needed to set up some bank accounts for our LLCs so in the process of doing that I ran across Baselane, which is a banking and bookkeeping platform. I had looked at some others but I ended up going with Baselane because it gave me the combination of banking, bookkeeping and tenant management I was looking for. I'm very happy for it and (bonus!) I was able to let our bookkeeper go, saving over $500/mo in the process!

  • Real Estate Agent · Denver, CO · Member since 2024 · 19 posts · 5 votes
    2y

    I do my own book-keeping, although I honestly hate that part! It's just another thing to store in my brain and remember to do. I've used Quickbooks and it was just OK. Are there any other investor-friendly applications out there that are better than quickbooks? 

  • Rental Property Investor · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2024 · 50 posts · 43 votes
    2y
    Quote from @Bonnie Low:

    Hi, Nelisa. I have a small portfolio of LTRs, MTRs and one STR. Until about a year ago we were using a bookkeeper to manage our books in quickbooks. It was just too cumbersome for us to do ourselves. I had wanted to find something simpler for a long time. I also needed to set up some bank accounts for our LLCs so in the process of doing that I ran across Baselane, which is a banking and bookkeeping platform. I had looked at some others but I ended up going with Baselane because it gave me the combination of banking, bookkeeping and tenant management I was looking for. I'm very happy for it and (bonus!) I was able to let our bookkeeper go, saving over $500/mo in the process!


    Glad you were able to find a solution that worked for you and to save a lot of money in the process! Quickbooks can be cumbersome to figure out so I get that. I've never heard of Baselane but it seems like it's geared more towards rental property owners. Do you also flip properties? 

  • Rental Property Investor · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2024 · 50 posts · 43 votes
    2y
    Quote from @Lindsay Tucker:

    I do my own book-keeping, although I honestly hate that part! It's just another thing to store in my brain and remember to do. I've used Quickbooks and it was just OK. Are there any other investor-friendly applications out there that are better than quickbooks? 


    I've used Quickbooks since the beginning. I've done some trials of other softwares like Stessa, RESimpli and Rent Manager but came back to Quickbooks each time. It's truly an accounting software whereas it seems a lot of the other available softwares out there aren't designed that way.

  • Bonnie LowPro Member
    Lender · Asheville, NC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Nelisa Lee:
    Quote from @Bonnie Low:

    Hi, Nelisa. I have a small portfolio of LTRs, MTRs and one STR. Until about a year ago we were using a bookkeeper to manage our books in quickbooks. It was just too cumbersome for us to do ourselves. I had wanted to find something simpler for a long time. I also needed to set up some bank accounts for our LLCs so in the process of doing that I ran across Baselane, which is a banking and bookkeeping platform. I had looked at some others but I ended up going with Baselane because it gave me the combination of banking, bookkeeping and tenant management I was looking for. I'm very happy for it and (bonus!) I was able to let our bookkeeper go, saving over $500/mo in the process!


    Glad you were able to find a solution that worked for you and to save a lot of money in the process! Quickbooks can be cumbersome to figure out so I get that. I've never heard of Baselane but it seems like it's geared more towards rental property owners. Do you also flip properties? 


    Yes, I do. I've done flips, BRRRRs and buy and hold in the LTR and MTR spaces. Buy and hold for STR.

  • Member since 2017 · 2 posts · 1 vote
    2y

    Thank you! It’s nice to have peace of mind!

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.