Boston Area Investor & Software Developer

[Jay Taylor]

Hey everyone! 👋

I've been lurking on BiggerPockets for years (seriously, the podcast got me through so many long drives to check on properties), but I'm finally making it official and introducing myself.

Quick background:

• Investing in multifamily in the Boston area (Dorchester specifically)
• Started a few years back and currently own a couple of 3-family properties
• Day job is in tech/software development
• My wife recently went full-time on property management so we can pursue Real Estate Professional status

Why I'm here:

Like a lot of you, I've tried a lot of different software over the years. For property management - Stessa, Innago, TenantCloud, endless spreadsheets. For deal analysis - various calculators and more spreadsheets. The property management tools were decent at tracking rent and expenses, but they completely ignored the investor side. And the deal analyzers? Great for evaluating a purchase, then you never open them again.

Nothing connected the two. Nothing helped me see how my actual property performance compared to my original projections. Nothing tracked REP hours. Nothing kept tax optimization front and center.

As a software developer, I made the classic mistake: "I'll just build my own."

What started as property management turned into something bigger:

I initially just wanted a better way to track income, expenses, leases, and maintenance across my properties. But as I built it, I kept adding the stuff I couldn't find anywhere else:

• REP hour tracking with the documentation the IRS actually wants
• Property evaluation tools that model realistic phases (startup chaos → stabilization → steady state)
• After-action reviews comparing my original deal projections to actual results
• Cost segregation and depreciation tracking

Fast forward almost a year, and I've been using what I built (calling it Brickfolio) to run my entire portfolio - both the day-to-day property management AND the investor intelligence side.

Here's where you come in:

I'm not here to sell anything - I'm genuinely trying to figure out if the problems I solved for myself are problems other investors have too. Specifically:

• Do you find yourself using one tool for PM and completely separate tools for deal analysis?
• How are you tracking whether your properties are actually performing to your original underwriting?
• Anyone else manually tracking REP hours in spreadsheets and dreading an audit?

I'd love to connect with other investors, learn what's working for you, and if anyone's curious about what I've built, I'm happy to share and get feedback. The BP community has given me so much over the years - feels good to finally participate instead of just consume.

Looking forward to being part of the conversation!
Jay