What Paperwork Should I Be Keeping Record Of?

Question

I'm a new house hacker here. What paperwork should I keep a paper trail of to make things like taxes and other situations better/easier for myself? Like should I have a folder on my laptop for the tenant and keep a copy of each payment I receive from them? What are some other things I should retain to make the landlord experience easier? Thank you.

Ryan Kelly · Answer

Here's a list of things to track:

- Formal lease application

- Formal signed and executed lease specific to your state

- Payment history (I recommend using online rent collection like Apartments.com, RentRedi, etc)

- Maintenance requests and receipts

- Accounting for all rental-related expenses (repairs, utilities, etc)

The more you treat it like a business, the more helpful you are to your CPA come tax time.

Nick Rutkowski · Answer

My partner and I keep an excel spreadsheet of rent, our purchases, utilities, taxes, insurance, and money spent on contractors. I use rent receipts for my tenants to keep track of payments. We have a different spreadsheet for each property.

Gregory Schwartz · Answer

To make taxes easier we set up a business checking account and had all the rent paid into that account and all the expenses paid out of that account. This helped our CPA know exactly what transactions related to the house. Its also a good idea to keep any receipts (I use a google drive folder, they have a scan function that makes uploading receipts a breeze)

Daniel Hyman · Answer

Here's a good folder setup.

• Bank Statements
• Credit Card Statements
• Property Management Statements
• Mortgage Statements
• STR Platform Statements
• Invoices
• Receipts
• Closing Documents (Purchase/Refi/Sale)
• Leases
• Check & Deposit Images
• Vendor Contracts
• W-9’s & 1099’s

Aaron Zimmerman · Answer

There’s a lot of great suggestions in this post. I wrote an article specifically for house hackers that lays many tax items out for you. I hope it provides some value!https://www.straightupchicagoinvestor.com/blog/6-must-knows-...

Ryan Kelly · Answer

@Charles Evans Zelle and Venmo do not provide the same protections as a third-party rent payment portal. They don't allow auto payments or automatically add late fees, and tenants would have the option to pull their payment back, which is not ideal. I would read up on the risks before collecting rent with those tools. In addition, you want a separate bank account for the rental property to separate it from your personal accounts. The more you treat it like a business, the better.

Max Emory · Answer

@Charles Evans, definitely keep all paperwork associated with your tenant (lease, receipts, etc).

For expenses that are not split per unit but are for the entire structure (utilities if not separately metered, mortgage interest, etc), keep a record of those payments so your tax pro can deduct a percentage of them for the unit you're renting.

Charles Evans · Answer

Would Zelle be appropriate? My bank directly takes Zelle, so its convenient for my tenant and I to do it that way, plus my bank would get it directly leaving a nice paper trail. Or should I see about making a separate checking account to get paid to?

Charles Evans · Answer

Thank you!

What Paperwork Should I Be Keeping Record Of?

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