Bookkeeping Strategies for House Hackers

Tampa, Florida
House Hacking
8moFollow

Bookkeeping Strategies for House Hackers

Jacob Guttman
Baltimore · Member since 2024 · 22 posts · 3 votes

Hi everyone,

I am getting very close to closing on my first house hack in Tampa, FL. It's a 4 bed / 2 bath SFH in South Tampa, and I will renting by the room. One thing that I have been stressing over a is bookkeeping. I don't want to spend money on bookkeeping services, so I'd prefer to use Excel (I am decent with Excel). Do any experienced house hackers/ rental property investors have any advice on bookkeeping through Excel? What to/not to keep track of? Tax-deductible expenses? Using detailed journal entries? Etc.

1Reply
288 views

Most Popular Reply

Markus Shobe
Accountant · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2019 · 247 posts · 135 votes
8mo

Excel is fine for now. Export your transactions to excel and code them. You need to keep track of all your inflows and outflows and split it 75% and 25%. 

3Reply
See this reply in the discussion

13 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Jason MalabuteBusiness Member
    Accountant · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 908 votes
    8mo

    Congrats on getting close to closing — that’s a huge step. It’s completely fine if you don’t want to invest in a bookkeeping service right now, but I strongly recommend not using Excel. Even for a house hack, you want clean, defensible records, and QuickBooks Online is relatively affordable and will make your life much easier at tax time. With a setup like yours, what’s important is that you only track the income and expenses related to the rooms that are actually rented. Your personal living portion should not be included in the rental bookkeeping. For shared expenses like mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, utilities, and repairs, you would allocate based on a reasonable method such as square footage or number of rooms, and only deduct the rental portion. The same concept applies to depreciation — you depreciate only the rental portion of the house (building value only, not land), and you do not depreciate the part you personally live in. Keep it simple by connecting your bank feeds in QuickBooks and categorizing transactions correctly each month, and you’ll be set up properly from day one instead of trying to clean up spreadsheets later.

    Malabute & Company CPAs525 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
    2Reply
  • Janice Carter
    Real Estate Broker · Atlanta · Member since 2024 · 1k+ posts · 607 votes
    8mo

    Jacob, congrats on getting close to closing, that is a strong first move. If you are using Excel, keep it simple and clean. Keep one sheet for income/expenses, one for CapEx and one for tenant ledger. Avoid overcomplicating journal entries unless you are running multiple properties. Most important, keep personal and rental expenses clearly separated. That alone prevents 90% of bookkeeping stress.

    2Reply
  • Aaron ZimmermanBusiness Member
    Accountant · Chicago, IL · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    8mo

    If you just have one property, I think it's easy enough to use excel. I have a good template that I used when house backing. Feel free to PM. 

    Based on your scenario, it seems That you'll be renting out 75% and using 25% of the bedrooms personally. This would therefore be your split for expenses as well including depreciation. 

    [email protected]
    Brick House CPAs53 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
    2Reply
  • Bo SmithPro Member
    Hinton, WV · Member since 2026 · 1k+ posts · 373 votes
    8mo

    Congrats on the first house hack! Excel works fine - separate tabs for income/expenses, monthly summary for cash flow. Tracking each room separately or lumping rent together?

    2Reply
  • Markus Shobe
    Accountant · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2019 · 247 posts · 135 votes
    8mo

    Excel is fine for now. Export your transactions to excel and code them. You need to keep track of all your inflows and outflows and split it 75% and 25%. 

    3Reply
  • Jake BakerBusiness Member
    Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2020 · 1k+ posts · 696 votes
    8mo

    @Jacob Guttman

    I agree with @Aaron Zimmerman - I recommend using spreadsheets for your first property. Then, as you scale, work with a bookkeeper to set up your QuickBooks Online correctly.

    At the bare minimum, you should do the following to make your bookkeeping easier:

    1. Dedicate one checking account and credit card exclusively to real estate. Keep personal and business finances separate to create fewer headaches.

    2. File all receipts in a dedicated Google Drive folder. Digitize physical receipts for easy storage and use a consistent naming convention for easy sorting - 2024.03.25 Home Depot.

    3. Maintain proper records, such as contracts, settlement statements, and promissory notes.

    [email protected]
    BookkeepingRE - Bookkeeping for Real Estate & Service-Based Businesses52 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
    2Reply
  • John Steffen
    Real Estate Agent · Dallas/Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2019 · 78 posts · 35 votes
    8mo

    Another echo to everyone else here. No need to complicate it. Excel is plenty. Biggest thing is keeping the related income/expenses separate from personal. 

    Good luck! 

    1Reply
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.
Log InJoin for Free