All Forum Posts by: Soh Tanaka

@Nick S Koval - You may want to have a few in your mind. While it's not a must, it's good to have a backup property management company, so if one does't work out, you know where to go. 

Regarding questions to ask, I'm sure you already have some in your mind. Go ahead and ask them. See if the answers sound like the company has the right processes or just "winging" the answers. Also, how responsive are they when you call or email? Best wishes to you!

"I know no one can take care of your property like you can." People say this all the time, but I disagree. I actually treat the other people's properties better than mine that I manage myself. 

Regarding what I look for in property managers, it's important that they are not bad. I know that sounds obvious, but my point is there's not much difference between a great property manager and an excellent property manager, but there's a huge difference between good and bad, so I concentrate on not getting a bad one, instead of trying to find an excellent one, if that makes sense.

I did purchase the ebook from LandlordAccounting. I rather have an actual book, so I printed them. It's a pretty good book, although I feel some of the transactions are way too simplified (for example, the purchasing with mortgage part.) I'm not an accountant, and I'm not a QuickBooks expert, but I've been using it for years, and I'm still learning, and I enjoy it.  

Thank you for clarifying, @Brian Garrett. You are correct. That said, I want to know if this is a good "commercial" loan.

I'm at a point where I have to use a non-conventional loan (hard money / private money). I found this company who will offer below, and I want to hear your thoughts regarding the terms.

- 30-year fixed - 80% financed with 6.35% or 75% financed with 6.2%

- $495 appraisal fee + $995 fee + 1.5 to 2.5 points depending on my credit

- About a month to close.

- Prepay penalty for the first 3 years: 3 % for the 1st year, 2% for the 2nd year and 1% for the 3rd year.

What do you think?

Thank you!

I know this is an old thread, but this video just came out that may help the QuickBooks setup/entries.

I know @Mark Ainley, and he is very experienced in the field of property management.

Soh

I am not an attorney, and you will get different opinions on this, but generally speaking, the more assets you have, the more protection you need. Usually setting up an LLC per property is considered an overkill, especially if each property isn't worth that much. Multiple LLCs mean different bank accounts, credit/debit cards, checks and such. A lot of people put a few properties in one LLC.

If you prefer Excel, then I guess you answered your own question. You can put it in a cloud, so you have access from everywhere.

It's been years since I originally made this post, and I still get PMs from people looking for the spreadsheet.

Long story short, I stopped sharing my spreadsheet, as I found out that no one basically used it. It requires some training, regardless of how easy it is to use, and I don't have a manual for it, so it's hard to use it.

That said, I think there's a lot of free/cheap cloud-based software out there now. I haven't tried them yet, but you can check out https://www.stessa.com/, https://www.rentalhero.io/ or https://cashonplex.com. I personally use QuickBooks.

Soh