What financial numbers do you seriously review per property and how often?

Question

There's been a lot of good discussion lately about which accounting software to use for a real estate and most of it lands on the same generic answer. What I don't see talked about as much is what comes AFTER the setup though. What numbers are investors pulling out of their books on a regular basis and how frequently? I'm talking about per property, not just the the total portfolio view. Specifically: are you looking at a P&L per property quarterly, yearly, or just at tax time? Are you tracking cash-on-cash return per property, or mainly just total cash flow? When something isn't adding up like an expense spike or a repair that feels too high, how quickly does your current setup actually show that to you? Genuinely curious how other landlords and investors are handling this, because I truly believe the gap between "I have accounting software" and "I have financial visibility" is bigger than most people realize until they try to refinance or figure out if they should sell instead. Let me know what you think.

Jason Malabute · Answer

Most of the investors I work with focus mainly on cash flow and cash-on-cash return, and those are the right headline numbers to watch per property. As an accountant, I also keep an eye on the balance sheet side, especially equity and net worth on each property, because that's what tells you whether something is overleveraged or whether it might be time to refinance and pull cash out, or even sell. The piece people most often overlook is meticulously tracking what each partner has actually put into a deal and taken back out over time. When that isn't kept clean, it turns into a real headache down the road because it becomes hard to calculate who is owed what when it's time to take distributions.

Marina Draper · Answer

Most of my Clients are just interested in cash flow and cash-on-cash ROI, but I as an accountant also pay attention to their balance sheet accounts, especially their equity/net worth. Is the property overleveraged or is it a time to refinance and cash out, or even potentially sell it?

It is also important to meticulously track each partner's investment into the deal and their withdrawals. A lot of people forget about that, and then when the time comes to take distributions, they might miscalculate who is owed what.

Aaron Zimmerman · Answer

Cash flow

Total return

return on equity

in no particular order

John Underwood · Answer

I am paying cash for everything at deep discounted prices. I just look at cash flow generated and then Net after expenses for the end of the year.

As long as my bank account is going up each month I don't look at Financials until the end of the year.