All Forum Posts by: Max Emory

Thanks for sharing, @Patrick Schwebke! Welcome!

Since you're in the military, check out War Room Mastermind by David Pere if you haven't already. Great group of veterans who invest in RE.

Hey @Bret M., lots of great bookkeepers and tax pros here in the biggerpockets forums. Biggerpockets also has a directory where you can view people's backgrounds and experience.

Let me know if I can answer any specific questions for you. Happy to help.

Hey @Shane Quin, lots of great bookkeepers and tax pros here in the biggerpockets forums. Biggerpockets also has directory where you can view people's backgrounds and experience.

Let me know if I can answer any specific questions for you. Happy to help.

Hey @Nicolas Munoz, I've always done it manually using my Excel calculator. I'm not aware of software that automates this since a lot of the numbers being input are assumptions made by the analyzer.

I will tell you you can dial in your processes around analyzing deals and hire someone to run your processes within your buy box. Something to consider.

How much more money could you make if you knew your numbers, felt less stressed, and had more TIME? 

This is what we do for our Clients.

We are the bookkeeping foundation for Real Estate Investors (REI) & Skilled Trades. We serve Real Estate Investors (Flippers, Wholesalers, & Residential/Commercial Landlords), Real Estate Agents/Brokers, Co-Host Companies, Property Managers, & Skilled Trades Small Businesses.

How We Stand Out From Other Bookkeepers / Bookkeeping Firms:

• Our Founder & CEO, Max Emory, has been an REI since the summer of 2019.

We speak the unique language of the REI industry and share the perspective of a Real Estate Investor. This saves our Clients an immense amount of time they do not have to spend teaching our bookkeepers how the REI industry works and what things like "creative financing" mean.

• All of our bookkeepers are US-based, hold multiple certifications & are REI specialists

At a minimum, each of our Bookkeeping Professionals is U.S.-based, Bookkeeper Launch certified, QBO ProAdvisor certified, and Bookkeeping for Real Estate Investors certified (our very own REI bookkeeping course).

• We have what you need to excel

We are stocked with a CEO, COO, Quality Control Specialist, Advisory Specialist, Clean Up Specialist, multiple Ongoing Support Specialists, Marketing Assistant, and Executive Assistant. We have built-in redundancies for our Clients and we all work together to ensure our Clients have an exceptional experience while having the financial information they need to make crucial decisions for their business. We also have a convenient mobile app client portal that makes your life a lot easier.

• Communication is our #1 priority
• Veteran Owned

Services We Do NOT Offer At This Time:

We do not provide tax services, property management services, payroll services, or AP/AR management services.

Hey @Bret M., I'd consider having a separate bookkeeping provider than your tax advisory/tax filing provider. For the past few years, we've had so many REIs come to our REI bookkeeping firm from an "all-in-one" solution where they had a terrible experience. I'm not sure why this is but I've seen it more times than I can count. I'm not saying all firms like that are bad. Just sharing what I've seen firsthand.

As far as what you're using to track your financials, once you have more than a few properties, you'll want to consider software. But, excel is totally fine in the beginning (in addition to your PM software to capture transactions outside of the properties).

We use QuickBooks Online exclusively for all of our REI Clients. I use it for my personal portfolio as well. We've found it has superior reporting features, integration features, and is overall more efficient to work within than other REI-specific software.

The downside is QBO is not set up for REI so you'll need to do that or work with an expert to ensure it is set up for your business appropriately.

Something else to keep in mind is your entity structure and how your entities file tax returns. As a general rule, each entity that files a separate tax return (partnership, s-corp, c-corp, etc) will need its own QBO subscription. If entities are disregarded, you can keep up with more than 1 in a single QBO account using the location/business feature to keep track of them separately. This will save you on subscription costs.

If you want to discuss any of this further, I'm happy to answer questions and help walk you through it.

Best of luck!

Hey @Matthew Samson, regarding "figuring out the financials" for 0-5 small properties, you can do this easily yourself just using excel or another free method. After that, think about hiring a bookkeeping firm that specializes in serving REIs.

Regarding hiring a CPA/tax pro for tax advisory and/or tax filing, I'd wait until you purchase your next primary and convert your current primary into a rental. At that point, as long as you plan to grow, you can get the relationship started so you're not scrambling once you purchase more properties. 

I will say, for most tax firms, you'll probably pay for more than you need at this stage because you don't have the volume to justify the cost of their services yet. But, as long as you plan to grow, it may be worth having that relationship in place so you're not scrambling later when your REI activities have picked up.

Hope that helps!

Hey @Adam Hoeker, congrats on the rentals!

Once you have more than a few properties, you'll want to consider software. But, excel is totally fine in the beginning (in addition to your PM software to capture transactions outside of the properties).

We use QuickBooks Online exclusively for all of our REI Clients. I use it for my personal portfolio as well. We've found it has superior reporting features, integration features, and is overall more efficient to work within than other REI-specific software.

The downside is QBO is not set up for REI so you'll need to do that or work with an expert to ensure it is set up for your business appropriately.

Something else to keep in mind is your entity structure and how your entities file tax returns. As a general rule, each entity that files a separate tax return (partnership, s-corp, c-corp, etc) will need its own QBO subscription. If entities are disregarded, you can keep up with more than 1 in a single QBO account using the location/business feature to keep track of them separately. This will save you on subscription costs.

If you want to discuss any of this further, I'm happy to answer questions and help walk you through it.

Best of luck!

Hey @Charlene Livers, lots of great answers above so I won't repeat those. I'll just add, that if you've done these types of deals or similar deals before, having accurate and up-to-date financials (aka bookkeeping records) for those previous deals to be able to analyze the numbers would be a great tool to use to make informed decisions about future deals.

And, even if you haven't done deals like this before, keeping updated financials for the deal you're doing is going to be huge as you're making decisions throughout the rehab.

We call these data-driven decisions. This is where we like to be. We want to stay away from making decisions based on feelings rather than data.

Just my 2 cents as a fellow REI and the owner of a REI bookkeeping firm.

Happy to answer any questions.

Best of luck to you!

Hey @Scott K., do you currently have an REI-savvy CPA or tax pro? If not, I recommend commissioning one and only taking their counsel on tax-specific questions.

I have a list I keep updated and recommend through our REI bookkeeping firm if you don't currently have one.

They can walk you through exactly what you can and cannot write off during these trips and what you need to document in order to write things off.

It's not necessarily a simple "yes" or "no". It's usually "it depends" on your very specific situation.

Happy to send that list over if you need it!