Baselane Vs Stessa

[Tyler Koller]

I have a mix of long term rentals and short term rentals and I'm looking for something to help organize all of my expenses and more. I currently use apartments.co for screening and rent collection. It would be nice if one app had it all but I don't think any are there yet. I really like that Stessa and Baselane offer high earning interest accounts and physical debit cards and sounds like Stessa offers checks. The biggest issue with Stessa is that it sounded like they had very low transfer maximums(making it difficult to pay people) but it looks like they've improved a little bit on that. Baselane seams to be more normal for transfer/deposit limits and you can create multiple virtual accounts for each property. Stessa has an app, and some other lease and screening features too but there is a 16/month fee to unlock all of the features. Baselane has lease, screening, and rent collection features too but no app but it's free.

Has anyone had experience using either or both? I've been leaning towards Baselane but Stessa seams intriguing as well.

[Cliff Benner]

I have not tried Baselane but I did try Stessa for a few minutes.

As an Accountant, I need to be able to make Journal Entries and that is something Stessa does not have so I deleted it right away.

For all my clients we sign them up with QuickBooks Online. Yes the Class feature Cost a bit extra which is a bummer bet the support for it is amazing, and it is easy to allow access for Tax Accountants to pull the reports they need rather than my clients playing middleman.

[Tyler Koller]

Quote from @Cliff Benner:

I have not tried Baselane but I did try Stessa for a few minutes.

As an Accountant, I need to be able to make Journal Entries and that is something Stessa does not have so I deleted it right away.

For all my clients we sign them up with QuickBooks Online. Yes the Class feature Cost a bit extra which is a bummer bet the support for it is amazing, and it is easy to allow access for Tax Accountants to pull the reports they need rather than my clients playing middleman.

 I originally looked into QuickBooks but it seemed very expensive for everything I would need it for. If you have just one business it's not too bad(My wife uses it for hers) but it starts to get really expensive if you have a lot of doors and or multiple businesses.

[Cliff Benner]

Quote from @Tyler Koller:

Quote from @Cliff Benner:

I have not tried Baselane but I did try Stessa for a few minutes.

As an Accountant, I need to be able to make Journal Entries and that is something Stessa does not have so I deleted it right away.

For all my clients we sign them up with QuickBooks Online. Yes the Class feature Cost a bit extra which is a bummer bet the support for it is amazing, and it is easy to allow access for Tax Accountants to pull the reports they need rather than my clients playing middleman.

 I originally looked into QuickBooks but it seemed very expensive for everything I would need it for. If you have just one business it's not too bad(My wife uses it for hers) but it starts to get really expensive if you have a lot of doors and or multiple businesses.

 Yes it does, needing to keep the books and properties seperate for proper Tax Reporting and any 1099s you may need to file can be costly. Something I discovered recently is; if you have a QBO Accountant start your company and allow the Accountant to get billed, you will get a 30% discount even after one year, but if you create your QBO without a QBO Accountant you disqualify yourself from their Accountant discount. 

Even at 30% discount, the QBO Plus subscription most Real Estate investors have to have is still $63+Tax.

You may look at Xero, I heard they have the Class feature but it is cheaper, it's just not as commonly used as QuickBooks.

[Jamie Banks]

I used Stessa briefly and I found that it didn't have all of the capabilities that I needed. I switched over to Baselane over a year ago and it has worked well for my growing portfolio. I have a mix of MTRs, STRs, and a room rental and I can perform all the needed property management and bookkeeping features on the site. 

To pay my contractors and employees I collect their bank information and can send an ACH directly to their bank account. 

Although Baselane doesn't have a formal app I find it very mobile friendly, I use it on both my iPhone and IPad

[Bonnie Low]

Hey, Tyler. I'm not a Stessa user, but I do use Baselane and I love it. You're right there that's not a single platform that does everything but I feel like Baselane comes close to it. I'm using the heck out of virtual accounts and virtual cards, which is helping keep my finances much more organized for each individual property. I also know that Baselane is continuing to evolve their app. You can't beat the price, either, or the interest rate on deposits. I don't personally care about checks anymore so that wasn't an important feature for me. 

[Tyler Koller]

Quote from @Jamie Banks:

I used Stessa briefly and I found that it didn't have all of the capabilities that I needed. I switched over to Baselane over a year ago and it has worked well for my growing portfolio. I have a mix of MTRs, STRs, and a room rental and I can perform all the needed property management and bookkeeping features on the site. 

To pay my contractors and employees I collect their bank information and can send an ACH directly to their bank account. 

Although Baselane doesn't have a formal app I find it very mobile friendly, I use it on both my iPhone and IPad

I think Baselane has a slight edge over Stessa so I think I'll start with them and switch to Stessa if it's not working for me.

[Tyler Koller]

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

Hey, Tyler. I'm not a Stessa user, but I do use Baselane and I love it. You're right there that's not a single platform that does everything but I feel like Baselane comes close to it. I'm using the heck out of virtual accounts and virtual cards, which is helping keep my finances much more organized for each individual property. I also know that Baselane is continuing to evolve their app. You can't beat the price, either, or the interest rate on deposits. I don't personally care about checks anymore so that wasn't an important feature for me. 

I think I'm going to Start with Baselane. How is it for preparing taxes?

[Sean O'Keefe]

buildium

[Bonnie Low]

Quote from @Tyler Koller:

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

Hey, Tyler. I'm not a Stessa user, but I do use Baselane and I love it. You're right there that's not a single platform that does everything but I feel like Baselane comes close to it. I'm using the heck out of virtual accounts and virtual cards, which is helping keep my finances much more organized for each individual property. I also know that Baselane is continuing to evolve their app. You can't beat the price, either, or the interest rate on deposits. I don't personally care about checks anymore so that wasn't an important feature for me. 

I think I'm going to Start with Baselane. How is it for preparing taxes?

 Honestly, that is probably my #1 favorite feature. We've struggled with Quickbooks for the last several years (and before that I literally had a shoe box with receipts in it). I always found QB to be clunky, not user friendly and just kind of overkill. Because Baselane was created by real estate investors for real estate investors, it is tailored for doing your taxes as an REI. You can easily tag each transaction using categories that synch to your Schedule E for tax time. It's very easy to stay organized this way. My husband was paying our bookkeeper $450/month to do our books (for a small number of properties!!) I was able to eliminate that expense just by switching to baselane because I can do it myself now. Game changer.

[Jamie Banks]

Quote from @Tyler Koller:

Quote from @Jamie Banks:

I used Stessa briefly and I found that it didn't have all of the capabilities that I needed. I switched over to Baselane over a year ago and it has worked well for my growing portfolio. I have a mix of MTRs, STRs, and a room rental and I can perform all the needed property management and bookkeeping features on the site. 

To pay my contractors and employees I collect their bank information and can send an ACH directly to their bank account. 

Although Baselane doesn't have a formal app I find it very mobile friendly, I use it on both my iPhone and IPad

I think Baselane has a slight edge over Stessa so I think I'll start with them and switch to Stessa if it's not working for me.

 I hope it works out for you! 

[Jake Baker]

@Tyler Koller

I have used both and they both are great in their own ways. I use QuickBooks Online for all of my clients. For most real estate investors, a Plus subscription is needed. It is the most popular software in the industry and all CPAs know how to navigate it which is nice.

[Colleen F.]

@Bonnie Low  How does baselane handle credit card transactions? Do you also create a virtual account for those?  I understand it is linked to a bank but was having trouble discerning how it imports outside transactions not from the partner bank. 

[Bonnie Low]

Quote from @Colleen F.:

@Bonnie Low  How does baselane handle credit card transactions? Do you also create a virtual account for those?  I understand it is linked to a bank but was having trouble discerning how it imports outside transactions not from the partner bank. 

Yes, you can have a baselane account(s) and/or link to external banks. The transactions get imported to your dashboard and you can tag them per your needed categories. You can set up virtual or sub-accounts. For example I have an account for each property and a sub-account just for the security deposits for those properties. I also have virtual cards that I assign for specific purchases, that way I know when that card is used what property and expense type to allocate it to. For example, my cleaner and handyman at my STR have separate cards so the only thing that ever gets charged to that card is that expense. It makes it very easy to categorize everything and stay on top of it. I really like it!

[Meg Melody]

I've been using Stessa for many years now. I started back when they were in Beta mode and free so I've seen them grow quite a bit. One thing I will say is they've come a long way and they are very good at taking direction. Every time I've put in a request for a change in their software they've done it that week. No joke. I've been in property management since 2013 and have used Yardi, Appfolio, and Stessa. I've used tons of other software as well but I loved when Stessa came out with multiple bank accounts. As an out of state investor, having Tenants have their own portal to make payments is a must. Stessa can also do leases w/docusign, tenant screening, and rental listings but I don't use that feature. I have had great success with Zillow Rental Manager which is free and posts to Trulia and Hotpads in one go PLUS their application fee is super cheap. I think $35 at the time of this writing and they can withdraw it and use it at other locations if they get denied. I think the application is active for a month as well. This means I get a ton of applications but Zillow also makes it easy to deny and sends them the denial letter which is fantastic in my opinion. I used to use mysmartmove.com for credit/background checks before that. It's great but a little more expensive for the potential tenant. 

Stessa/Thread Bank APY is currently 5.09% so I actually make money every month even though I'm on the pro plan. I have not used Baselane but since I've been with Stessa for so long I don't see myself changing especially since the APY is higher. Don't fix what ain't broke ya know? lol 

Stessa also does tax packages and has tons of resources on tax planning. I love their reports which make it easy to send to lenders when I'm looking for portfolio and DSCR financing. I'm an active investor and always swapping out financing so I love that I can track all of that easily with Stessa. Those are newer updates and were much needed. You used to be able to sell turnkey properties for very nominal fees (1% listing fee if sold) via Roofstock with Stessa a couple of years ago. I don't know if they still do that service but that was also nice. I did not sell one with them but I did have a listing with them. I don't think their platform was selling many turnkey properties in Arkansas at the time so I think that was why it maybe didn't sell?

Stessa has an app that I use all the freaking time. Esp when I'm on the go and doing a flip. I capture the receipts as soon as I leave a home improvement store and it has saved my butt because those receipts pile up fast when you're in active renovation on multiple properties. 

I do not work for Stessa in any capacity and I don't receive anything from referring them. They have had many drawbacks in the past but they are quick to put out new features and do actually make changes based on comments in the forums. Please let me know if you have any other questions and cheers to your REI, @Tyler Koller! Best of luck!

[Colleen F.]

@Bhushan Shinkre  Sorry that happened to you.   Were the transfers from the tenant credit card or ACH transactions.  I have heard of this happening with credit card transactions which is why I ask. Not sure what  you would do here. 

[Bhushan Shinkre]

@Colleen F. I'm not sure how they were paid TBH, since Baselane does not disclose that. But, all payments with Baselane goes via Stripe gateway, and they apparently have no choice but to honor those requests due to their agreement with Stripe. I'm reaching out to Baselane's leadership to put some sense in them about good banking practices and honoring legally bound leases, that they ended by breaking through this action. They should take some accountability of these actions. 

[Colleen F.]

@Bhushan Shinkre  I am wondering if the fund removal can be reported as credit card fraud. I don't take credit cards but I believe stripe does.   Good luck with it. 

[Bhushan Shinkre]

That is one of my moves is to report Baselane to FTC for such fradulent practices, despite covered in footnotes in terms and conditions. This is just bad banking practice and FTC should be aware of digital platforms like Baselane in many ways abusing their powers and washing their hands off. 

[Colleen F.]

@Bhushan Shinkre  I was speaking about fraud against your tenant sort of like passing bad checks, but I don't know if you can do that.  

[Bhushan Shinkre]

@Colleen F. unfortunately, AFAIK, there is no other resource than go to small claims court and go after her, which will take me $2-3K in additional legal fees. Other one is to do collections via an agency, but AFAIK, they need judgement again. I'll be exploring these options in parallel. If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with Baselane, the tenant or other creative options ... all ears! 

[Alex Amerling]

Has anyone here figured out how to better automate the bill input into Baselane? 

I'd love it if the emails could be taken into Baselane, and automatically update the invoices.