All Forum Posts by: Jeff Gates

This is about accounting. First property management accounting. Second about accounting in general. I did a deep dive at the code level few years ago with Buildium. They do a pretty nice job for property management, but leave out some other accounting features, the owners decided not to include. In most cases Buildium is good for property management and Quickbooks is overkill. If you are property flipper or do capital expenditures that affects the asset basis, Buildium is not the correct choice. Most landlords don't do that and if in one year they must replace a roof, take those numbers to a CPA at year end. (for that one year)

I also have coded xero integrations end to end at the code level. So I understand the internals and GAAP.

Recently we replace Quickbooks and Xero altogether. They are not the future. Since AI and Machine learning have come to maturity, the accountant as a profession will be replaced. We code this now. Accounting as we know it will not be a piece of software. Where humans engage with it. This 70 year old profession is now being replaced by learning robots. This industry is ripe for disruption. 

The professional renter story. They give you funds, get the rental key in their hand, take possession of the property, then the funds are never cleared against the bank, due to NSF. My suggestion is; never take a deposit from a new renter by ACH. 

Does Cozy provide this deposit by ACH feature? If so it is dangerous. 

What I don't like is during the screening process the cozy blocks the tenants SSN from the landlord. This is vital information, and required when you seek to collect on judgements from tenants who are latter evicted. Cozy causes the problem. 

There are other FREE platforms around. Look around. I suppose Cozy will be affected by big change due to other leadership. Furthermore don't expect them to add to many features.

I have done this and they paid 50% more. They told me they would stay six months, but stayed 11. 

The downside, make sure you get a big deposit. The renter will trash your place to some extent. They did with mine. 

These services are dangerous!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/22/business/zelle-banks-fraud.html

ROI is lower with cash.

My Lawyer said, if you are a Landlord, prepare for an eviction every six years. He said this is the average time frame for your luck to run out. He has learned this is the cycle. Just like replacing carpet, this is a baked in cost of ownership. 

My lawyer said, any contact with the renter could prolong the eviction. The lawyer was hoping for a default case, and that is what we got. The renter was more interested in "payback". 

I have learned the renter can sue for harassment very easily and it can be joined to the eviction case. The eviction judge will prolong the eviction case until the harassment charge is lifted. 

How do I know this? The renter was being coached by their own lawyer and this was suggested. There is case law for this. 

Lessons learned: Don't select an landlord eviction attorney. I interviewed three. Select a attorney that represents "tenants", they know all the tricks and save you heartache. 

I spent $1200 on legal fees, and lost 40 days rent. The rental was not pretty when they left, but I can't say it will cost more than $2000 to bring the rental back to the condition I need. 

The renter left at the end of the lease and never gave me the keys. They sub leased my property (on move out day) to a squatter, "unknown person".

I consider myself lucky. 

What really worries me is this 83 million eviction records. In the eviction database. 

https://evictionlab.org