All Forum Posts by: Olga Merino
Olga Merino has started 3 posts and replied 14 times.
Post: Should you have a bank account for every property you own?

- Laredo, TX
- Posts 14
- Votes 7
Thank you @Simon W. and @Hideyuki Gojima !
I will definitely bring this up to my parents to manage our bookkeeping better.
Post: What is your biggest roadblock right now in real estate investing

- Laredo, TX
- Posts 14
- Votes 7
My biggest roadblock right now is my family's real estate business.
My parents started investing in 2013 with a 6 unit complex. Two years later they got a 14 unit complex and a year later a 17 unit. The business grew but we weren't ready for it. Around the same time, my father was "retired early" from his 25 year job. My mom had to get a pay cut in order to not lose her job. And we had two losses in the family back to back. Nevertheless we kept pushing thru to make the business keep going.
however, the unexpected happen. In
2017, a water heater in one of our "newest" unit broke one night and the tenants didn't let us know until the next morning. Long story short, we are still paying off the debt that incident created and still waiting for the insurance claim to settle.
That incident has caused us to be negative since then. I recently started getting more involved and trying to see how we can stop drowning and start swimming again.
I wanted to start investing on my own within a year or two, but decided to wait until my family's business starts been profitable again.
Post: Should you have a bank account for every property you own?

- Laredo, TX
- Posts 14
- Votes 7
Originally posted by @Lance Lvovsky:
@Olga Merino
If they own in their names and treated as sole proprietorship for tax purposes then yes I recommend separate account for each property. With 4 properties you will have 4 entries on schedule e of their tax return. Makes your parents lives easier and the cpa who is preparing the tax return easier. Also helps in organizational in the event of an IRS audit.
Thanks for the input.
They have two properties under their name and two under their Business name. They recently started separating the expenses of the properties that are not under the business name to another account. Like you mentioned, it has made things more simple for us.
Post: Should you have a bank account for every property you own?

- Laredo, TX
- Posts 14
- Votes 7
My parents own 4 properties with a total of 37 units. I recently started helping them with the business and I want to help them organize their accounting better.
My questions are:
- How do you all do your accounting with multiple properties?
- Do you all have multiple bank accounts? (one for each property)
- Do you manage separate expense accounts for each one?
- How do you all organize your accounting? are you very specific (assigning expenses to units themselves) or broad (assigning expenses to the property in general)?
Thank you in advance!