When you receive a security deposit from a tenant, your cash balance goes up (asset) which means that you need to have a corresponding increase in a liability account. Remember, if you’re using the double-entry bookkeeping system (which you are if you are using Quickbooks Online), all transactions need to balance out, expenses need to balance with a…
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Question from a reader: Hi there, Matt. I was wondering if you could give some advice as to how to get this ball rolling. I’m a full time college student, married, with about 10k saved up (both of us work minimum wage). I found a house that I am very interested in buying, and its…
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The following is the journal entry I used to record the closing of a commercial loan. In this transaction, I put 7 total properties under a commercial loan, 6 were originally on land contracts and 1 was fully paid off. Here is a summary of each of the line items: 1. Type of account: Long…
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The sole purpose of this post is to document the process by which I bring a new rental property into my accounting system, Quickbooks online. Create Your Asset Accounts (3 total) Think of it this way, you will need one account (or in this case, one account with two sub-accounts) to track the value of…
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Networking is so easy in college. In college, everyone seems constantly primed and ready to network. Thirsty Thursday anyone? Of course, nobody actually calls in networking on campus. It’s only when you start to transition into the “job market” that this concept that is so very innate gets a new name, a new set of…
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I’ve tried to write this post so many times that my head hurts. I’m just going to keep it really simple this time. If you’re not buying a house using a bank mortgage, you can “Crowd Source” all or part of your down payment. That means that you sign up on a site like Prosper.com or…
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2014 didn’t cause me to rethink why I invest in real estate but it did give me a healthy wake-up call regarding risk and leverage. Higher leverage is the way to achieve higher returns on any producing investment but with it comes higher risk. It was a year of dealing with a tenant going through…
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The sole purpose of this post is to demystify the concept of investing in real estate and give you a frame of reference for getting started on this path. Consider the following two points: 1. According to the Census Bureau, 64.4% of American’s own their home (as of October 2014). 2. For a great many of…
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Quick answer? 13.4 pennies in each role are pre-1982 (as of November 2014 in Ann Arbor MI). Longer answer follows: If you’re reading this post I’m assuming your not a regular reader (welcome to the site) since I don’t usually write about investing in currency. My primary topic is financial independence with a focus on…
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Why do you buy or desire to buy rental properties? If you have never asked yourself this question, please take a minute to do so now. Why? Well because the answer to this question should determine how you go about the process of acquiring properties and building your business. As I see it there are…
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