My biggest pet peeve is bad bookkeeping. The problem is that bookkeeping required from real estate investors does not make a lot of sense (some will claim “none”). Even if you hire a bookkeeper, chances are you will not get a good job done – unless your bookkeeper is expert in real estate business. My …
Minimum Requirements for Real Estate Bookkeeping. Read More »
If you’re one of those investors who keeps every single receipt neatly organized in 3-ring binders – you can stop reading now. Both of you, actually. For the rest of us, we’ll discuss receipts. Yes, those dreaded receipts that the IRS will want to see one day. Without receipts, the IRS will torture you and …
Where are you looking for answers? Remember this old joke where a late night drunk is crawling on his knees around a lamppost, in circles? Responding to an inquiry from a passer-by, the man explains that he is searching for his watch. – So, you dropped your watch under this lamppost? – Oh no, I …
Setting your record(s) straight – for the lazy investor Read More »
Have you noticed that good bookkeeping is very much like getting on a diet? See for yourself: we all need it, we all know it’s good for us, we all tried it at some point (at least the dieting part), and yet most of us are “off.” Why? I think it’s clear: too many diets/bookkeeping …
[…] Carefully examine what you were charged on the front end, what you were charged at payoff, and what you paid in between. I can’t tell you how many clients reported that the lender said ‘oops’ once confronted with the client’s own calculation. […]
[…] For bookkeeping purposes, the entire $1,000 has been spent the moment you signed the paperwork. What you have now is simply a loan from BestBuy. It’s between you and BestBuy, and the IRS can’t care less […]
[…] Occasionally (hopefully), your business account will be short. A common mistake is to then pay out of personal account. Don’t! Instead, make it two steps: transfer money from personal account […]
[…] It gets worse. My first example was a make-ready between tenants. What if this painting job was done on a flip house you’re preparing to sell? Well, your extra tax on the forgotten $1,000 labor could easily be $400 […]
[…] for the property that you own (cars, real estate, investments) you should keep everything until 3 years after you sell it. If you bought some stock back in 1995, and you sold it in 2013 – hold on to your 1995 purchase documents until […]
The more you invest in different forms of real estate, the more complicated your taxes become. Whether or not you do your own taxes, there is one thing of utmost importance […]
