All Forum Posts by: Aaron Zimmerman

I would say that everyone is prone to making mistakes. CPAs generally have more knowledge about general accounting but it is ultimately up to the individual person to take it a step farther to get more specialized. While it's nice that being a CPA provides instant credibility, credentials can only get someone so far. Like @Natalie Kolodij said, there's plenty of EAs that are better than CPAs at tax. 

There's a lot of great CPAs on here. I would recommend reaching out to a few and seeing who you connect well with. Most CPAs on here work in all 50 states if you're willing to work remotely. 

I would go with a real estate cpa, but I’m a little biased. You want peace of mind knowing that everything was properly deducted.

I think you could learn how to do the bookkeeping for properties and reduce that fee. I do feel like $6k is pretty high, so I’d look around and talk with other CPAs

Donald - I think the key is going out to networking events and asking investors who they use. Handyman is probably one of the harder ones to find reliably and something I struggle with as being invested in Chicago. 

As others have said in the post, I would definitely re-run your cash flow numbers as $4k per month in cash flow after subtracting out PITI is not true cash flow. You'll want to account for vacancy, capex, property mgmt, repairs, etc.

I would re-run your returns with this information. It seems Like you have an edge with your network and being able to manage remotely, so I wouldn’t hesitate keeping properties here, especially if they’re in A+ areas. 

There's a lot of great CPAs in this forum and BP. I'd look through the forums, reach out to a few and see who you connect well with.

I would consider Stessa or Quickbooks. They're pretty robust softwares. I would make the expense codes mimic the Schedule E if using quickbooks.

Mason - there’s a lot of real estate CPAs on here. I’d recommend looking in the forums, asking local FB groups for their recommendations. 

Regarding house hacking, I wrote an article that I think could provide you some value.

You can reach out to the IRS and get your tax return copy from previous year. There will be a fee and id recommend filing an extension for this year. 

I do find it hard to believe that they just lost your return though. If they did, that’s really bad practice management. If they didn’t, then they’re simply not being professional. The carryovers for depreciation and your basis are absolutely crucial. 

Yes it’d be 120 days. You could always offer cash for keys though.